scholarly journals Evaluating Urban Energy Systems in the UK – the Implications for Financing Heat Networks

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janette Webb
Keyword(s):  
District Heating ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Power Development ◽  
Urban District ◽  
Heat Networks ◽  
District Energy ◽  
Urban Energy ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
The Uk

UK energy policies position urban heat networks as components of a resilient low carbon, aff ordable system, but, as Stewart Russell’s work showed, such technologies have never been integrated into UK provision. This paper takes Russell’s legacy forward by examining prospects for urban district heating and combined heat and power development in the context of the fi nancial, rather than technological, innovations shaped by liberalised energy and fi nancial markets. Drawing on sociology of markets and social studies of fi nance, the paper examines the resulting evaluation practices. Findings indicate that such district energy infrastructure does not conform to the investment calculus, making a business case hard to establish. Bridging the value gap between liberalised fi nance and district energy requires actors willing to devise improvised solutions. In spite of the established sustainability credentials of the technology therefore, signifi cant deployment in the UK (and similar countries) will depend on political leadership and new fi scal policy.

scholarly journals Towards low-carbon district heating: Investigating the socio-technical challenges of the urban energy transition

Smart Energy ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 100054
Author(s):  
Francesco Reda ◽  
Salvatore Ruggiero ◽  
Karoliina Auvinen ◽  
Armi Temmes
Keyword(s):  
District Heating ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Urban Energy ◽  
Technical Challenges

scholarly journals Opportunities for Integrating Underground Railways into Low Carbon Urban Energy Networks: A Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (16) ◽  
pp. 3332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrique Lagoeiro ◽  
Akos Revesz ◽  
Gareth Davies ◽  
Graeme Maidment ◽  
Daniel Curry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Waste Heat ◽  
District Heating ◽  
Smooth Transition ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Secondary Energy ◽  
Heating And Cooling ◽  
Urban Energy ◽  
The Many

Cities demand vast amounts of energy for their everyday operation, resulting in significant degradation of energy in the form of heat in the urban environment. This leads to high cooling requirements in cities, while also presenting the opportunity to reuse such waste heat in order to provide low-carbon heating for buildings and processes. Among the many potential energy sources that could be exploited in urban areas, underground railway tunnels are particularly attractive, as the operation of the trains produce considerable amounts of heat throughout the year. This paper reviews how secondary energy sources in urban areas can be integrated into heating and cooling networks, with emphasis on underground rail tunnels. This involves investigating potential urban waste heat sources and the existing state-of-the-art technologies that could be applied to efficiently recover this secondary energy, as well as analyzing how district heating and cooling networks have been a key mechanism to allow for a smooth transition from current fossil fuel based to future low-carbon energy sources.

scholarly journals The role of intermediaries in low carbon transitions – Empowering innovations to unlock district heating in the UK

2017 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
pp. 137-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth E. Bush ◽  
Catherine S.E. Bale ◽  
Mark Powell ◽  
Andy Gouldson ◽  
Peter G. Taylor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
District Heating ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
The Uk

scholarly journals District Heating Challenges for the UK

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael-Allan Millar ◽  
Neil Burnside ◽  
Zhibin Yu
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Demand Management ◽  
District Heating ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Load Prediction ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
District Energy ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Good Potential ◽  
The Uk

District heating uptake has grown with the increasing need for cleaner and more efficient energy supply. This has resulted in a rising number of new developments signing up to a district heating scheme, typically powered by Combined Heat and Power (CHP) boilers or biomass boilers with supplemental electrical or gas grid connections. These schemes have advanced rapidly in recent years, with much of the research focus targeting lower carbon technologies, improved load prediction and peak demand management. We assess the current status of District Heating Networks (DHNs) in the United Kingdom using published case studies and suggest next steps to improvement. Our findings show that the United Kingdom has good potential for uptake of district energy given the current political climate and government incentives, however significant improvements must be made to further penetrate the heating market.

scholarly journals An Investigation into the Limitations of Low Temperature District Heating on Traditional Tenement Buildings in Scotland

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 2603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Millar ◽  
Burnside ◽  
Yu
Keyword(s):  
Energy Savings ◽  
Housing Stock ◽  
District Heating ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Building Conditions ◽  
Residential Heating ◽  
Transient System ◽  
Heating Energy Consumption ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Building Condition

Domestic heating accounts for 64% of domestic energy usage in the UK, yet there are currently very few viable options for low carbon residential heating. The government’s carbon plan commits to improving the uptake of district heating connections in new build dwellings, but the greatest carbon saving can be made through targeting traditional housing stock. This paper aims to quantify the potential carbon and energy savings that can be made by connecting a traditional tenement building to a district heating scheme. The study uses a transient system simulation tool (TRNSYS) model to simulate the radiator system in a tenement block and shows that a significant benefit can be achieved by reducing the supply temperature; however, the minimum supply temperature is drastically limited by the building condition. Therefore, the study also critically compares the benefits of a lower supply temperature against minor refurbishments. It was found that improving building conditions alone could offer a 30% reduction in space heating energy consumption, while building improvements and integration of a river source heat pump could offer almost a 70% reduction. It is the recommendation of this study that a dwelling be improved as much as economically possible to achieve the greatest carbon and energetic savings.

scholarly journals A Method for Optimizing and Spatially Distributing Heating Systems by Coupling an Urban Energy Simulation Platform and an Energy System Model

Resources ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Annette Steingrube ◽  
Keyu Bao ◽  
Stefan Wieland ◽  
Andrés Lalama ◽  
Pithon M. Kabiro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
District Heating ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Heat Pumps ◽  
Energy Simulation ◽  
Heating Systems ◽  
Optimal Amount ◽  
Urban City ◽  
Urban Energy ◽  
Building Level

District heating is seen as an important concept to decarbonize heating systems and meet climate mitigation goals. However, the decision related to where central heating is most viable is dependent on many different aspects, like heating densities or current heating structures. An urban energy simulation platform based on 3D building objects can improve the accuracy of energy demand calculation on building level, but lacks a system perspective. Energy system models help to find economically optimal solutions for entire energy systems, including the optimal amount of centrally supplied heat, but do not usually provide information on building level. Coupling both methods through a novel heating grid disaggregation algorithm, we propose a framework that does three things simultaneously: optimize energy systems that can comprise all demand sectors as well as sector coupling, assess the role of centralized heating in such optimized energy systems, and determine the layouts of supplying district heating grids with a spatial resolution on the street level. The algorithm is tested on two case studies; one, an urban city quarter, and the other, a rural town. In the urban city quarter, district heating is economically feasible in all scenarios. Using heat pumps in addition to CHPs increases the optimal amount of centrally supplied heat. In the rural quarter, central heat pumps guarantee the feasibility of district heating, while standalone CHPs are more expensive than decentral heating technologies.

scholarly journals Imagining the smart city through smart grids? Urban energy futures between technological experimentation and the imagined low-carbon city

Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802110059
Author(s):  
Leslie Quitzow ◽  
Friederike Rohde
Keyword(s):  
Smart Grid ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Energy Futures ◽  
Urban Energy ◽  
The City

Current imaginaries of urban smart grid technologies are painting attractive pictures of the kinds of energy futures that are desirable and attainable in cities. Making claims about the future city, the socio-technical imaginaries related to smart grid developments unfold the power to guide urban energy policymaking and implementation practices. This paper analyses how urban smart grid futures are being imagined and co-produced in the city of Berlin, Germany. It explores these imaginaries to show how the politics of Berlin’s urban energy transition are being driven by techno-optimistic visions of the city’s digital modernisation and its ambitions to become a ‘smart city’. The analysis is based on a discourse analysis of relevant urban policy and other documents, as well as interviews with key stakeholders from Berlin’s energy, ICT and urban development sectors, including key experts from three urban laboratories for smart grid development and implementation in the city. It identifies three dominant imaginaries that depict urban smart grid technologies as (a) environmental solution, (b) economic imperative and (c) exciting experimental challenge. The paper concludes that dominant imaginaries of smart grid technologies in the city are grounded in a techno-optimistic approach to urban development that are foreclosing more subtle alternatives or perhaps more radical change towards low-carbon energy systems.

scholarly journals Green business models in the construction sector: an analysis of outcomes and benefits

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amal Abuzeinab ◽  
Mohammed Arif ◽  
Mohd. Asim Qadri ◽  
Dennis Kulonda
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Green Business ◽  
The Uk

Purpose Green business models (GBMs) in the construction sector represent the logic of green value creation and capture. Hence, the call to examine GBMs is growing ever louder. The aim of this paper is to identify benefits of GBMs by adopting five essential elements of the GBM from the literature: green value proposition; target group; key activities; key resources (KR); and financial logic. Design/methodology/approach In all, 19 semi-structured interviews are conducted with construction sector practitioners and academics in the UK. Thematic analysis is used to obtain benefits of GBMs. Further, the interpretive ranking process (IRP) is used to examine which elements of the GBM have a dominant role in providing benefits to construction businesses. Findings The benefits are grouped into three themes: credibility/reputation benefits; financial benefits; and long-term viability benefits. The IRP model shows that the element of KR is the most important when evaluated against these three benefit themes. Practical implications Linking GBM elements and benefits will help companies in the construction sector to analyse the business case of embracing environmental sustainability. Originality/value This research is one of the few empirical academic works investigating the benefits of GBMs in the construction sector. The IRP method is a novel contribution to GBMs and construction research.

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