The Project

Overall scope

The overall objective of REWARDHeat is to demonstrate a new generation of low-temperature district heating and cooling networks that will be able to recover renewable and waste heat, available at low temperature. These networks will be able to increase production and distribution efficiency by recovering, renewable and waste heat available at low temperature.

By focusing on the exploitation of energy sources in urban environments, the replicability and upscaling potential of the decentralized solutions will be maximised. These solutions aim to promote a cost-efficient and technically viable decarbonisation of the European DHC sector.

Specific Objectives

1. Integrate effectively multiple urban renewable and waste energy sources. REWARDHeat networks will integrate effectively multiple low-grade urban energy sources where they are available along the network. DHC networks operated at low temperature can provide contemporarily heating and cooling from the same pipelines, by means of reversible heat pumps located at customer’s buildings.

2. Develop innovative technologies for flexible use of heat in DHC networks. Prefabrication, standardisation and modularity will be distinctive for the solutions of REWARDHeat. This is to remove design errors and reduce installation time. The project aims to demonstrate innovative pipeline solutions that will allow for reduced installation time and optimal operation.

3. Demonstrate digitalisation, allowing to optimise the management of the DHC network. Control strategies and fault detection solutions will be assessed that assure a thermal balance of diffused heat generation, storage and utilization. Interaction between thermal and electric systems will be addressed both on the supply and demand side. Moreover, approaches will be elaborated allowing to manage thermal and electric energy purchase from different sources.

4. Develop business models and financial schemes to enable large public and private investments to be mobilised. By focusing on the green dimension of investments and developing appropriate business models, REWARDHeat aims to encourage a shift in thinking where heat is viewed as a service rather than a commodity.