IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v310y2024ics0360544224029517.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of solar district heat in the energy transition of the German heating sector

Author

Listed:
  • Popovski, Eftim
  • Fleiter, Tobias
  • Ragwitz, Mario

Abstract

This study explores the integration of solar district heating (SDH) into German heating networks, focusing on the energy transition in the heating sector. Utilizing energyPRO software, 8410 scenario variations were analysed, considering collector areas ranging from 1000 to 200 000 m2 and thermal storage capacities from 0 to 100 000 m³. The research identifies the most cost-effective SDH system designs, with solar fractions between 11 % and 18 % and collector area/storage ratios between 4 and 6.7, resulting in levelized costs of heat (LCOH) between 45 and 64 €/MWh. The techno-economic potential of SDH in Germany is estimated at 17.6 TWh by using a spatial analysis model. The paper presents sensitivity analyses and preliminary design equations, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of SDH's role in decarbonizing the heating sector. By integrating spatial data analysis with energy system modeling, the study offers a novel methodological approach, providing insights into the technical and economic feasibility of SDH systems in Northern Germany and similar climatic regions. The findings aim to assist policymakers and decision-makers in evaluating the costs and dimensions of SDH systems based on local heat demands and influencing economic and technical factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Popovski, Eftim & Fleiter, Tobias & Ragwitz, Mario, 2024. "The role of solar district heat in the energy transition of the German heating sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:310:y:2024:i:c:s0360544224029517
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2024.133176
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544224029517
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2024.133176?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lund, H. & Möller, B. & Mathiesen, B.V. & Dyrelund, A., 2010. "The role of district heating in future renewable energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 1381-1390.
    2. Lund, Henrik & Duic, Neven & Østergaard, Poul Alberg & Mathiesen, Brian Vad, 2018. "Future district heating systems and technologies: On the role of smart energy systems and 4th generation district heating," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(PA), pages 614-619.
    3. Connolly, D. & Lund, H. & Mathiesen, B.V. & Werner, S. & Möller, B. & Persson, U. & Boermans, T. & Trier, D. & Østergaard, P.A. & Nielsen, S., 2014. "Heat Roadmap Europe: Combining district heating with heat savings to decarbonise the EU energy system," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 475-489.
    4. Noussan, Michel & Jarre, Matteo & Poggio, Alberto, 2017. "Real operation data analysis on district heating load patterns," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 70-78.
    5. Ciampi, Giovanni & Rosato, Antonio & Sibilio, Sergio, 2018. "Thermo-economic sensitivity analysis by dynamic simulations of a small Italian solar district heating system with a seasonal borehole thermal energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 757-771.
    6. Tschopp, Daniel & Tian, Zhiyong & Berberich, Magdalena & Fan, Jianhua & Perers, Bengt & Furbo, Simon, 2020. "Large-scale solar thermal systems in leading countries: A review and comparative study of Denmark, China, Germany and Austria," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    7. Best, Isabelle & Braas, Hagen & Orozaliev, Janybek & Jordan, Ulrike & Vajen, Klaus, 2020. "Systematic investigation of building energy efficiency standard and hot water preparation systems’ influence on the heat load profile of districts," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sollich, Martin & Wack, Yannick & Salenbien, Robbe & Blommaert, Maarten, 2025. "Decarbonization of existing heating networks through optimal producer retrofit and low-temperature operation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 378(PA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Golmohamadi, Hessam & Larsen, Kim Guldstrand & Jensen, Peter Gjøl & Hasrat, Imran Riaz, 2022. "Integration of flexibility potentials of district heating systems into electricity markets: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Danica Djurić Ilić, 2020. "Classification of Measures for Dealing with District Heating Load Variations—A Systematic Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-27, December.
    3. Li, Haoran & Hou, Juan & Hong, Tianzhen & Ding, Yuemin & Nord, Natasa, 2021. "Energy, economic, and environmental analysis of integration of thermal energy storage into district heating systems using waste heat from data centres," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    4. Serafeim Moustakidis & Ioannis Meintanis & George Halikias & Nicos Karcanias, 2019. "An Innovative Control Framework for District Heating Systems: Conceptualisation and Preliminary Results," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-15, January.
    5. Østergaard, P.A. & Lund, H. & Thellufsen, J.Z. & Sorknæs, P. & Mathiesen, B.V., 2022. "Review and validation of EnergyPLAN," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    6. Wang, Yang & Zhang, Shanhong & Chow, David & Kuckelkorn, Jens M., 2021. "Evaluation and optimization of district energy network performance: Present and future," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    7. Calikus, Ece & Nowaczyk, Sławomir & Sant'Anna, Anita & Gadd, Henrik & Werner, Sven, 2019. "A data-driven approach for discovering heat load patterns in district heating," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 252(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Johansen, Katinka & Werner, Sven, 2022. "Something is sustainable in the state of Denmark: A review of the Danish district heating sector," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    9. Aunedi, Marko & Pantaleo, Antonio Marco & Kuriyan, Kamal & Strbac, Goran & Shah, Nilay, 2020. "Modelling of national and local interactions between heat and electricity networks in low-carbon energy systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    10. Guelpa, Elisa & Bischi, Aldo & Verda, Vittorio & Chertkov, Michael & Lund, Henrik, 2019. "Towards future infrastructures for sustainable multi-energy systems: A review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 2-21.
    11. Ciampi, Giovanni & Rosato, Antonio & Sibilio, Sergio, 2018. "Thermo-economic sensitivity analysis by dynamic simulations of a small Italian solar district heating system with a seasonal borehole thermal energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 757-771.
    12. Chicherin, Stanislav, 2020. "Methodology for analyzing operation data for optimum district heating (DH) system design: Ten-year data of Omsk, Russia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    13. Mathiesen, B.V. & Lund, H. & Connolly, D. & Wenzel, H. & Østergaard, P.A. & Möller, B. & Nielsen, S. & Ridjan, I. & Karnøe, P. & Sperling, K. & Hvelplund, F.K., 2015. "Smart Energy Systems for coherent 100% renewable energy and transport solutions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 139-154.
    14. Stanislav Chicherin & Vladislav Mašatin & Andres Siirde & Anna Volkova, 2020. "Method for Assessing Heat Loss in A District Heating Network with A Focus on the State of Insulation and Actual Demand for Useful Energy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-15, September.
    15. Munćan, Vladimir & Mujan, Igor & Macura, Dušan & Anđelković, Aleksandar S., 2024. "The state of district heating and cooling in Europe - A literature-based assessment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    16. Soltero, V.M. & Chacartegui, R. & Ortiz, C. & Velázquez, R., 2016. "Evaluation of the potential of natural gas district heating cogeneration in Spain as a tool for decarbonisation of the economy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(P3), pages 1513-1532.
    17. Muhammad Faizan Tahir & Haoyong Chen & Muhammad Sufyan Javed & Irfan Jameel & Asad Khan & Saifullah Adnan, 2019. "Integration of Different Individual Heating Scenarios and Energy Storages into Hybrid Energy System Model of China for 2030," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-20, May.
    18. Averfalk, Helge & Ingvarsson, Paul & Persson, Urban & Gong, Mei & Werner, Sven, 2017. "Large heat pumps in Swedish district heating systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1275-1284.
    19. Tunzi, Michele & Benakopoulos, Theofanis & Yang, Qinjiang & Svendsen, Svend, 2023. "Demand side digitalisation: A methodology using heat cost allocators and energy meters to secure low-temperature operations in existing buildings connected to district heating networks," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    20. Benakopoulos, Theofanis & Tunzi, Michele & Salenbien, Robbe & Hansen, Kasper Klan & Svendsen, Svend, 2022. "Implementation of a strategy for low-temperature operation of radiator systems using data from existing digital heat cost allocators," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:310:y:2024:i:c:s0360544224029517. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.