Decarbonizing the Building Stock with Renewable District Heating - A Case Study for a Rural Area in Germany
Abstract
District heating can present an opportunity to increase the share of renewable energies in the German heating sector, which is currently stagnating at around 14 %. A village in central Germany was examined regarding its heat demand and supply structure in order to develop heat supply concepts for the year 2030. Those include the expansion of an existing heating network that is fed by excess heat of a biogas plant at present. Large solar collector fields with seasonal storage, wood chip boilers as well as possibilities for sector coupling are considered for heat production in the future. Four concepts with high shares of renewable energies were simulated with the tool energyPRO by EMD International A/S to compare the Levelized Cost of Heat and key ecological indicators. Additionally, a reference case scenario based on current trends for decentralized heat supply was added to the comparison.