In 27 European countries from Greece to Finland and from Portugal to Ukraine district heat is distributed to over 100 mio. customers, this is 23% of the entire population in these countries.

Annual sales of heat alone bring an income to the district heat distributors in the European Union of approximately 10.7 bn Euro[1]. Accession of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to the EU would further add around 3.1 bn Euro to this figure.

District heating experiences different conditions in those countries that are members of the EU and those who are not. The penetration of DHC in EU countries is lower than in most CEE countries, but is advancing and the amount of heat produced in conjunction with CHP is increasing as well. The sector has begun a process towards a less carbon intensive fuel mix, away from coal and towards gas and renewables. In the countries outside the EU, DH penetration is higher, but is - together with other economic subsectors - experiencing difficulties stemming from the economic transition.

The CEE countries use to a large extent coal and gas in their supply mix. This is the case for the DH sector, the general heat sector as well as for the electricity sector. There is a very large potential for use of more diversified energy sources, such as waste and renewables.

District heating  (DH) is progressing and diversifying in the majority of European countries. DH penetration in the national heat markets ranges between 1 and 50% among the EU countries. The market share of district heat is at its peak in Scandinavia. However, the delivery of district heat is in absolute figures by far the highest in Germany.

Finland shows us that a high DH penetration does not necessarily have to do with cold weather. Even though the weather really is cold in Finland, the specific delivery of district heat per m² is not higher; but is in fact lower than in many countries more to the south. Therefore, weather conditions may initially have been a determining factor for the take up of district heating, but they are no longer determining for the success of district heating in Europe.

The above table indicates that even though district heating capacity has only grown to a minor extent, the heat output of that capacity has grown by close to 7%. Growth in heat output can be identified in several countries, but the rather substantial growth in the mature district heating market of Germany dominates the overall output. Greece was not represented in the Euroheat & Power figures from 1994 and is therefore not included in the above table. However, Greek capacity adds an additional 140 MWth and a production of 320 GWh heat to the total.

The actual figures of installed DH capacity and production are higher than the roughly 140 GWth and 260 TWh stated in the table above. The United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal also operate district energy systems, but precise figures from these countries are not available.

The growth in capacity has been strong in countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Italy and Austria. It may again be noticed that a remarkable growth in district heat output is also seen in European countries, which have not traditionally been associated with DH. Greece, as a shining example, now operates district heating schemes in the northern part of the country.