District Heating Challenges for the UK

Abstract

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.

Renewable Energy Sources in a Post-Socialist Transitional Environment: The Influence of Social Geographic Factors on Potential Utilization of Very Shallow Geothermal Energy within Heating Systems in Small Serbian Town of Ub

“…They should be involved in the developing populations' awareness to renewable solutions through for example workshops, education programs and public presentations. Different levels of power, including local and republic authorities, should develop regulations, as well as provide guaranties regarding new renewable energy source and systems (Similar proposals can be found by Millar, Burnside and Yu [109] regarding district heating in the United Kingdom).…”

“…Operators has to be aware that the district heating can be successfully deployed when the price is concurrent comparing to other heating possibilities [109]. Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia [97] provided a price overview of heating depending of an energy source used for heating (This analysis assumes that needed energy for a heating season is 9000 kWh per apartment).…”

Factors Affecting Energy Performance of Large-Scale Office Buildings: Analysis of Benchmarking Data from New York City and Chicago

“…District steam systems utilize pipes for distribution, resulting in a significant energy loss in the system, lowering the efficiency of any such scheme. In modern-day district heating, these schemes have high operating and maintenance costs, make it difficult to connect to end-users (high/low-pressure interface), and have high thermal losses [27]. Also, utilizing district steam for heating and other purposes generally limits other choices for the building's systems that could have higher efficiency.…”

Hybrid Adsorption-Compression Systems for Air Conditioning in Efficient Buildings: Design through Validated Dynamic Models

“…The chiller comprises two adsorbers working in counter-phase, to continuously provide cooling on the evaporator (5) side, which cools down the condenser of the bottoming vapour compression chiller (6). The cooling effect to the end-user is provided by the evaporator on the vapour compression side (7). In this way, the heat from the vapour compression chiller is "pumped" to the adsorption chiller, which then discharges it to the ambient by condensing the refrigerant in (4) and dissipating it to the ambient (9).…”

“…Among the passive ones, improvement of building insulation is considered as the most effective solution to meet the regulatory requirements [2]. Concerning the active methodologies, the main route is to improve the heating and cooling systems, by enhancing the efficiency of the heating and cooling devices [3], implementing smart control strategies [4][5][6] and integrating innovative solutions at system level [7,8]. In this context, one of the main focus is on increasing the share of renewables in the heating and cooling sector.…”