Background: In the past two centuries, energy consumption per capita has significantly increased. At the same time the fundamentals of energy provision have continuously developed towards fossil energy sources. This extended use of finite, unequally distributed and emission-intensive energy sources poses a challenge to both the energy, the climate and therefore the socio-ecological systems. Consequently, solutions are needed to reduce the fossil energy demand while fulfilling our daily energy services. District heating systems powered by renewable energy can contribute to this societal mission. Methods: This paper presents the co called Eco.District.Heat-kit, a novel planning model supporting future decision-making processes regarding grid-bound heating. The interdisciplinary approach assesses the feasibility of district heating systems at different locations from a qualitative and quantitative perspective. Given the lack of quick and simple planning tools in this field, the Eco.District.Heat-kit provides a time-efficient pre-evaluation on the basis of widely available input data. Results: The decision support model rates district heating networks regarding the thematic areas of (1) integrated spatial and energy planning (2) costs, (3) resources, and (4) environment and climate. In addition, it involves a longterm planning horizon by including spatial development and climate scenarios until 2050. Finally, the Eco.District. Heat-kit identifies parameters both positively and negatively influencing the overall rating. This enables end-users to sort out non-optimal configurations before entering a more detailed planning stage.Conclusions: Due to the straightforward methodological approach and the focus on basic parameters of district heating system planning, the Eco.District.Heat-kit supports energy suppliers, urban-planners and decision-makers at the beginning of planning processes. In order to increase both transparency and applicability of the model, its functionality and input parameters are disclosed within this paper, enabling the recreation and adaptation towards user-specific needs and local situations.
While climate agreements are made on an international level, the measures for mitigating climate change must be executed on a local scale. Designing energy and climate related strategies on the level of municipalities has been hampered by the lack of comprehensive data on the current status of energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions on the local level. A novel approach based on the so-called spatial turn in energy and climate policies has now been established in the form of the Energy Mosaic Austria, which represents a comprehensive energy and greenhouse gas inventory for all Austrian municipalities considering different purposes of energy consumption and different energy sources. The inventory is based on the linkage of bottom-up and top-down operations, utilizing data on land use and mobility structures on the municipal level. The outcomes provide a detailed insight into the pattern of energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions that are resolved on the municipal level. A spatially differentiated analysis of the inventory yields dependencies of the energy consumption and the greenhouse gas emissions on spatial structures particularly due to the fractions of different types of land use including mobility. With the energy mosaic Austria, local policy makers are given an inventory with unprecedented spatial and contentual resolution, which is fully coherent with more coarse-grained provincial and nationwide compilations of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and elucidates the scope of action in energy and climate policy from the municipal to the nationwide level.
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