The greenest city in the making: Vilnius decarbonising its district heating

Vilnius is no stranger to innovation and sustainability – these two assets of the city have earned it the title of European Green Capital City for 2025. For the past 15 years, Vilnius has focused on its heat detox and is now reaping the rewards of such effort. 

Sow a heat detox, reap a healthy city 

The numerous projects that amount to Vilnius’ full-city heat detox had strong underlying motives behind them. Reducing energy costs, thus protecting lower-income homes, offering sustainable and affordable heating, reducing CO2 emissions, and increasing energy security and sovereignty by relying more on local sources were all key motivators in the different steps of Vilnius heat transition. 

District heating as a powerful base 

Vilnius’ district heating system serves over 7,200 buildings through a 760km network, delivering approximately 2.8 TWh of heat annually, making it one of the largest networks in the Baltic Region. 

The Lithuanian capital city has implemented significant projects aiming to modernise its district heating system, an important one being a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant with 164 MW thermal and 70 MW electrical capacity. This innovation has led to a 20% reduction in heating costs since 2013 and helped decresase the reliance on natural gas, lowering both fuel costs and carbon emissions. Another important modernisation project was the replacement of old pipelines with pre-insulated ones to improve efficiency and reduce heat loss. 

With such projects, the city has achieved remarkable improvements in efficiency and sustainability in its DHC system over the past 15 years. As a result, they were able to reduce heating losses from 24% to 12%, meeting Scandinavian standards, and significantly improve operational metrics such as co-generation water re-supply and maintenance downtime. These achievements have positioned Vilnius's district heating sector among the most advanced in Europe. 

A new ambitious project: the largest absorption heat pump in the Baltics! 

The most powerful absorption heat pump in the Baltic region (9 MW) has been installed in Vilnius. This innovative project aims to enhance the efficiency of the district heating system by utilising waste heat from the production process, thus reducing reliance on biomass and natural gas. The heat pump will recover 17,252 MWh of energy annually, enough to heat 26 A++ energy-class apartment buildings. 

Through this ingenious project, Vilnius will save €1.36 million annually, create jobs in a new industry, and ensure competitive heating prices. But the benefits are more than economic: biomass heating efficiency will be increased by over 13%, 17,252 MWh of energy will be recovered each year, and CO2 emissions will go down by 4,000 tons annually. This is an important step towards Vilnius overarching goal of reaching climate neutrality in 2030. 

Next steps and plans

By 2030, Vilnius aims to achieve a 90% biomass share in its district heating system, aligning with Lithuania's National Energy and Climate Plan​  

Where Vilnius is in its heat strategy

Vilnius' Heat Detox

Key Heat Figures

• Emissions related to heating: ca. 1.3M tons 
• Km of DHC currently: 760km
• Km of DHC planned: ca. 4km
• Percentage of renewables in heating system:  70-80% biomass
• Other interesting figures: Ca. 1/3 of Vilnius’ heating network is obsolete; currently around 17km of old pipelines will be replaced with modern, pre-insulated ones. 

Covenant Figures 

• Signatory to the Covenant of Mayors since: 2012 

Emission reduction ambitions:  

• % GHG emissions reductions by 2030: 80% 
• % GHG emissions reductions by 2050: 100% 

City Awards

• Green Capital 2025 
• Mission City