REWARDHeat represented at SDEWES 2023

At the SDEWES Conference in Dubrovnik in September 2023 the REWARDHeat organised a special session "Planning and modelling of next generation district heating and cooling systems" and participated with two article presentations outlining key features to accelerate the uptake of innovative district heating and cooling in the EU. 

The first presentation “Renewable energy and low-temperature heat sources scenarios of the European heat sector” , presented by Akram Sandvall (IVL), analysed long-term scenarios for the heating sector in eight EU countries through energy systems modelling and identified the importance of including low-temperature heat sources into district heating networks as an important measure to achieve ambitious climate emission targets in the heating sector. The presentation related to the REWARDHeat project scenario interface available HERE.

The second presentation “Blended Finance as a Catalyst for Accelerating the European Heat Transition?”, performed by Tobias Popovic (HFT) examines in which way financial market participants might be able to fill the funding gap on green infrastructure, such as district heating and cooling. A large-scale role-out of district heating and cooling in the EU would require hundreds of billions of EUR of infrastructure investments within the next few years and it is unlikely that the public sector can raise these amounts. Hence a particular focus in the study lies on blended finance as a key investment strategy going forward.

Both publications are still pending publication and will be available in due time.