REWARDHeat: Renewable and Waste Heat Recovery for Competitive District Heating and Cooling Networks

Our Projects
October 2019 to September 2023

REWARDHeat aims to demonstrate a new generation of low-temperature district heating and cooling networks, which will be able to recover low-grade renewable and waste heat, available at low temperature.

Description/Objectives:

72% of the European population (EU28) live in urban areas, characterised by large demand for heating and cooling services. A large amount of low-grade waste heat is available in these areas, emitted by air conditioners, refrigeration, data centres and industrial processes. The new generation of DHC networks will increase production and distribution efficiency by recovering this locally-available, renewable heat.

The focus is on the exploitation of the energy sources available within the urban context, allowing to maximize the replicability and upscaling potential of the decentralized solutions developed in the project. The REWARDHeat solutions promote a cost efficient and technically viable decarbonization of the European DHC sector.

REWARDHeat will promote punctual metering, thermal storage management, network smart control as means to enable and optimise the exploitation of renewable and waste heat in DHC networks. At the same time, this approach permits a change of paradigm with respect to the business models devised: thermal energy will be sold as a service to the customers, rather than being viewed as a commodity.

Solutions will be developed at 8 demonstration sites across 7 European countries. Additionally, 3 early adopters not implementing actual demonstration measures, but fully involved in the project consortium, will develop preliminary projects for the upgrade of their networks integrating waste heat from different sources.

Partners:

The project is coordinated by Accademia Europea Di Bolzano, based in Italy, and involves another 27 partners from 10 European countries:

A2A Calore & Servizi SRL, Italy
Aalborg Universitet, Denmark
Albertslund Kommune, Denmark
Artelys, France
Arvalla AB, Sweden
Dalkia, France
Danfoss A/S, Denmark
Electricite de France, France
Energie Plus Concept GmbH, Germany
Enisyst GmbH, Germany
Euroheat & Power, Belgium
European Heat Pump Association, Belgium
Fundacion Cartif, Spain
HAWK Hochschule Fur Angewandte Wissenschaft Und Kunst Fachhochschule Hildesheim/Holzminden/Gottingen, Germany
Hochschule Fur Technik Stuttgart, Germany
Hulleras Del Norte SA, Spain
Indepro AB, Sweden
IVL Svenska Miljoeinstitutet AB, Sweden
KWA Contracting AG, Germany
Ljeciliste Topusko, Croatia
Mijnwater BV, Netherlands
Ochsner Process Energy Systems GmbH, Austria
RINA Consulting SPA, Italy
Sampol Ingenieria Y Obras S.A. Spain
Sveuciliste U Zagrebu, Fakultet Strojarstva I Brodogradnje, Croatia
Thermaflex International Holding B.V. Netherlands
Vattenfall Warme Hamburg GmbH, Germany