Analysing community-based initiatives for heating and cooling: A systematic and critical review

Fouladvand, Javanshir; Ghorbani, Amineh; Mouter, Niek; Herder, Paulien M.

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2022.102507

Cited by 33 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 151 publications

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“…Earlier research investigated the role of technical and institutional conditions in the formation of TECs (Van Summeren et al, 2021;Fouladvand et al, 2022b), institutional relatedness (Punt et al, 2022) institutional entrepreneurship (Mahzouni, 2019), energy communities role in governance (Wagemans et al, 2019;Schmid et al, 2020) in a multi-level perspective (Dóci et al, 2015), the role of energy community actors in different contexts (Özgül et al, 2020) and business models (Cielo et al, 2021). Earlier research showed that energy community initiatives are embedded in their local context and therefore differ in legal forms and initial development Fouladvand et al (2022a), which specifically reviewed TECs, concluded that TECs should be studied as "distinctive sociotechnical entities with their own unique characteristics." (p. 9).…”

Section: Analytical Framework To Analyze Barriers and Drivers Experie...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Citizen engagement will be practiced differently, depending on whether collective or individual heating solutions are being chosen (Sovacool et al, 2021). In Germany, important local actors in the transition to renewable electricity are citizen-led community-based initiatives that have significantly contributed to the wider acceptance of renewable energy technology (Fouladvand et al, 2022a). Moreover, on the international level, the EU has given community-based initiatives a central role in the transition to renewable energy [Directive (EU) 2018/2001Lowitzsch et al, 2020a].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of thermal energy communities in Germany's heating transition

Hartmann

Palm

2023

Front. Sustain. Cities

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A rapid decarbonization of the energy sector is key for mitigating climate change and in this transformation a transition to renewable heating is essential. To date, most attention in both research and policy on decarbonization has been on electricity and transport systems, with less interest in the heating system. Half of the EU's final energy consumption is made up by the heating and cooling sector, making this an important sector for reducing fossil fuel consumption. This article addresses the lack of research on decarbonization of heating by answering the question, what barriers and drivers do Thermal Energy Communities (TECs) perceive when trying to enter the market and play a role in the decarbonization of heating in Germany? Eight TECs and four umbrella organizations in Germany have been interviewed about their experiences of initiating and running a TEC. The results show, amongst others, that the political support of municipalities is put forward as an essential driver and important factor for success. However, barriers for municipalities to get involved were often that they lacked expertise, capacity and financial resources. An important driver for TECs was the involvement of local experts and professionals who could support the volunteers often in charge of a TEC. The results show that TECs that included professionals had an advantage in building heating systems, as they could better address their complexity and high initial costs. Another prevalent result was the need for community engagement and citizen mobilization, which is a greater need in heating projects compared to those focusing on electricity, due to community heating systems requiring a substantial number of customers for profitability.

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Section: Analytical Framework To Analyze Barriers and Drivers Experie...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of thermal energy communities in Germany's heating transition

Hartmann

Palm

2023

Front. Sustain. Cities

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“…The effects of global warming on humanity and ecosystems are already alarming and mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is essential in limiting their consequences [1][2][3]. In this regard, special attention is currently being paid to the transition: international, national, regional and local, in the energy sector (electricity and heat) being one of the main sources of GHG emissions worldwide.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this regard, special attention is currently being paid to the transition: international, national, regional and local, in the energy sector (electricity and heat) being one of the main sources of GHG emissions worldwide. [4][5][6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing operating costs in district heating systems by optimizing functional parameters. Comparative studies

Muntean

Tokar

2023

IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci.

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In district heating networks, the influence of conditions: thermohydraulic, reliability, availability and cost of materials, heat demand and energy consumption for pumping, on the operation of the system must be considered in terms of optimizing the design so that the costs of production, transport and maintenance to be reduced as much as possible. These system problems are unavoidable during operation and therefore the paper proposes an analysis based on simulating the operation of the system in two possible situations: reducing the diameters of the heat transmission pipes with the compromise of increasing the energy consumption required for pumping and respectively reducing the maximum pressure losses with the advantage of obtaining an energy saving at pumping. The comparison of the results obtained by the simulation allowed the choice of the optimal solution established on the basis of the minimum total costs (capital and operational) and the minimum heat losses on the pipeline network, taking into account the variation of investment costs of the pipeline and pumping energy depending on the diameter of the pipe.

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“…A literature review of thermal energy communities considering solar and bio energy, as well as ambient conditions and air quality, is carried on in Ref. [13]. A multi-objective optimization model minimizing life cycle costs and environmental impact, maximizing use of renewable energy sources and social benefits for a residential community in Netherlands to facilitate transitions from low carbon buildings to positive energy ones is formulated and analyzed in Ref.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%