District heating part of energy strategy
The Danish municipality of Ringkøbing-Skjern plans to become self-sufficient on a renewable energy supply by 2020. A part of this plan is the transformation of the district heating from natural gas to renewable sources. The goal is to go from 40% to 60% renewable energy sources in the local district heating grid – and with current 50 % the municipality is already halfway. The focus is mainly on integrating wind energy.
Analyses by Aalborg University also show that the share of buildings with district heating connection can be increased from the current 50% to 70% by connecting all homes that are in the district heating area to the grid, and the goal in the municipality’s Energy2020 Strategy is that in 2020 all homes in district heating areas will be connected.
As a part of the plan, the local district heating company Ringkøbing Fjernvarme is installing a gas driven heat pump which will supply 30,000 MWh a year to the heating consumers, about 25% of the total supply, supplementing the current 30,000 m2 solar heating plant and 12 MW electric boiler.
Another part of the plan is to increase energy efficiency in the buildings and reduce the heating demand with 10%.
Potential for heat savings
During a collaboration with Ringkøbing-Skjern, 4DH PhD Fellow Stefan Petrovic from Aalborg University has analysed the potential for heat savings in the muncipality through a highly detailed GIS-based energy atlas and concluded that a reduction of heating demand by 25% can be achieved for less than 1.7 DKK/kWh.
The biggest part of the potential is found around the biggest towns, and heat savings should be done in buildings supplied from oil and natural gas boilers.
The Energy2020 Strategy
Self-sufficiency in renewable energy was approxi¬mately 56.2% in 2015.
The following nine initiatives will increase the current level of renewable energy by approximately 44.2%, bringing Energy2020 to its full objective of 100% in 2020:
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Initiative
|
Impact
|
Target
|
|
Reduction in housing heat consumption
|
0.2
|
10% reduction in housing heat consumption: 288 TJ/ year
|
|
Renewable energy in businesses
|
1.0
|
20% of the industry’s consumption changed to renewable energy
|
|
Less energy consumption for road transport
|
0.8
|
10% reduction in energy consumption for road transport: 177 TJ/year
|
|
More renewable energy in district heating
|
4.8
|
Increased from 40% to 60% renewable energy in the district heating
|
|
Change oil boiler to renewable energy
|
1.9
|
2/3 of individual oil kettles changed to renewable energy
|
|
New wind turbines
|
22.0
|
Wind power is increased to 6,000 TJ/year, 2.4 times the existing electricity consumption
|
|
New solar cell plants
|
1.3
|
3 planned field plants with solar cells covering 5% of the municipality’s total electricity consumption
|
|
More production of local biomass
|
0
|
More production of local biomass is desired
|
|
Biogas plants
|
12.3
|
Annual biogas production of approximately 1,230 TJ
|
Missing redemption of one area will result in higher ambition level
of another.
Follow the heat production here: www.emd.dk/plants/rfvv
