District cooling is entering the market at a rapid pace. France is leading in terms of installed capacity, the capacity is mainly installed at la Defence in Paris. Other schemes are appearing in diverse parts of Europe. Stockholm in Sweden has adapted this technology to its special preconditions, using energy from sewage water to generate cooling services.

The seven German systems are almost all based on existing district heating schemes. Their cooling capacity ranges between 100 kW and 5 MWc.

In the United Kingdom, district cooling systems are being operated in four locations, among which one at the Heathrow airport and another provides cooling for the Channel between the UK and France. These two alone have, added together, an installed capacity of 63.2 MWc.

   		 

The distribution of fuels for the district heating sector of the EU

 

The above graph clearly illustrates that the use of coal for district heat production in the European Union is receding. It has dropped from 39% to 34% over a period of 3 years. Also the use of oil has declined markedly. Natural gas has in particular gained from this development. The developments should also be seen in the context of a generally growing heat output in the period.

The use of refuse has declined in relative figures, but the growth in renewable sources compensates for the decline of this fuel source. The column "other fuels" covers the use of renewables and a variety of other energy sources, which are often specific to a particular country. However, renewable energy made out over half of this column or 11% of total supplies to district heat production in 1997.

The contribution from renewable sources differs very much from one country to another, depending on the availability and price of primary energy and indeed of the regulatory regime.

The share of renewables of total input energy is by far the highest in Sweden. Renewables in the form of woodchips, waste heat, waste, peat, electricity (with a high share of hydropower) account for over 54% of total fuel input. Traditional carbon containing fuels, i.e. oil, natural gas and coal account for only 20% of the total. Further, the application of heat pumps supports a development towards ambient energy. Also the non-EU members, Norway and Iceland, have a very impressive share of renewables in their supply. Icelandic district heating is as matter of fact based almost to 100% on geothermal heat. Icelandic is particularly fortunate in this context, but geothermal heat sources are being used in other countries too.

The shift in the use of primary fuels facilitates lower overall CO2 emissions from the district heating sector, as indeed a reduction of other types of emissions.  This clearly indicates that district heating operators participate strongly to reducing national emissions.

Considering that the change has taken place over a relatively short period, it is, however, difficult to say how it will continue. Natural gas obviously already has a strong representation among EU countries. Despite its qualities in terms of low carbon and sulphur content, one must concede that over-reliance on natural gas could form a threat to security of supplies in the long term. It must be remembered that an increasing share of gas supplies are delivered from countries outside the EU. It is therefore important for the sake of supply security that short term advantages do not offset longer term policies.