Sustainable Energy Planning and Management Vol 38

Abstract

This 38th volume of the International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management presents some of the newest work within in the energy planning, energy systems analyses and district heating area. Articles focus on multi objective optimisarion for a community in the Alps, carbon neutrality in Estonia, the prospects of heat pumps combined with thermal energy storage in maximising self-consumpotion from a photovoltaic field and methods for assessing district heating options. Other work focus on gamification tools for assessing energy efficiency measures, country analyses of economic and environmental indicators, the adaption of alternative fuel vehicles, and the use of waste heat sources for district heating.

Energetic and financial evaluation of a district heating network under varying supply temperatures and booster technologies

“…A reduction in DH supply temperature decreases heat losses in the distribution network. The fraction of the heat losses to the total amount of heat delivered by the central HP ranges between 4.3 and 18.0 %, which is considered low compared to values mentioned in literature (5.0-27.8 % [7,27,28]). This is a consequence of the limited size and compact lay-out of the DH network.…”

“…Another limitation of DH at low temperatures is its limited application potential in old buildings, where supply IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2766/1/012095 2 temperatures between 60 °C and 90 °C are required for space heating (SH). Several studies have examined the effects of lowering the DH supply temperature on the energetic performance and the induced costs for booster units in DH networks [4,5,6,7]. These studies show that concepts with lower supply temperatures can increase the efficiency of the distribution network, but that from a cost perspective, the DHW temperature is a limiting factor in reducing the supply temperature, as the investment cost for a booster unit is not compensated by the reduction in energy cost.…”