11 Oct 2021

District heating system of Bolzano

The DH System of Bolzano in South Tyrol (northern Italy) was initiated in 1986 in order to satisfy a social housing district’s need for heat. From the end of the 1990 years began expansion, optimisation and from 2008 took place a massive expansion, made possible through the construction of a new waste incineration plant. Thus, a strong reduction of CO2 emission was possible despite a massive expansion of the network.

The district heating system was built in 1986 to supply a social housing area. The supply was based on natural gas-powered boilers and a hot water network. In 2006, plans were made to extend the network to a larger part of the city and the nearby hospital and to get a new heat supplier: a waste incineration plant. Through this combination, a larger part of the city could be supplied with district heating while lowering the CO2 emissions. The waste incineration plant was first to be completed and went into trial operation in 2013 and regular operation in 2014. During this time, the connection to the district heating network was also established, initially as a temporary solution on the existing connection, and then as a definitive new built connection. In 2016, the expanded Bolzano heating plant with the 5.600 m³ buffer storage and a new, highly efficient (all IE4-drives) pump system became operational. In this new pumping station, the outlets for the three main pipelines (existing city, hospital and industrial zone) have already been realized. This pumping station represents the heart of the Bolzano’s district heating system, here is collected the heat from the incinerator and the heating plant as well as the buffer storage’s heat and sent on its journey towards the consumers.

Read the Academic Paper here: