Gothenburg’s Journey to Fossil-Free District Heating and Cooling

Gothenburg, Sweden

Gothenburg is turning up the heat on decarbonisation. With a growing population and climate neutrality in sight by 2030, the city is phasing out fossil fuels from its heating system. A new biomass plant and an efficient district network are key to delivering clean, reliable heat to residents.

Heating and Cooling

Mitigation

Gothenburg is Sweden's second-largest city, with a population of 631 000 residents, and it is known for its robust industrial base and Scandinavia's largest port. The city is expecting a population growth in the coming years, aiming to reach 700 000 residents by 2035, posing a challenge for the heating sector, among others. Gothenburg is part of the Mission cities aiming to reach climate neutrality by 2030.

Achieving climate neutrality

Decarbonising the heating and cooling sector is key to achieving climate neutrality by 2030. Another reason for the city to detoxify heat is switching from fossil fuels and increasing the security of supply. The end-consumers of heating and cooling in Gothenburg also request access to clean energy in their homes, and a high carbon-tax has been one of the main incentives to make this switch since the 90s.

The city’s heat strategy is part of the Environment and Climate Programme for the City of Gothenburg 2021-2030. This plan sets the basis for the transition to an environmentally sustainable city by 2030, including actions in the heating and cooling sector. One of the biggest highlights for heating in Gothenburg is building a biomass CHP plant that will be finished this year. Once completed, the share of fossil fuels in the heating system will be close to zero.

District heating is essential for Gothenburg, as almost all large buildings in the city are connected to the network. In total, about 80% of the homes are supplied by DH. This is a good way of not using electricity for heating and having a more efficient system. District cooling is also growing, right now existing only in the centre of the city, with the plan to be double as big within 10 years.

^{Heat grid of Gothenburg. ©Göteborg Energi}

^{Cooling grid of Gothenburg. ©Göteborg Energi}

Main challenges to detoxify heat and next steps

Fierce competition with individual heating and cooling solutions, like electricity and heat pumps.
The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive from the EU legislation disadvantages DH in the way energy performance is calculated.
The emissions from waste heat are sometimes assigned to the DH network, making it look less sustainable.
For district cooling, the main challenge is to use as little electricity as possible.

Where Gothenburg is in its heat strategy

District heating to ships in harbour in Gothenburg

Gothenburg is extending its heat detox to the ships in its harbour, decreasing CO2 and NOx emissions, as well as noise coming from the ships.

Find out more

Gothenburg's Heat Detox

Key Heat Figures

Emissions related to heating: heating plants emitted 63,000 tCO₂ in 2024
Km of DHC currently: 1230 km
Km of DHC planned: no big expansions planned, as the network already covers most of the city
Percentage of renewables in heating system: 75 % waste heat, 11 % renewables
Other interesting figures: the volume of heat demand shared by DHC is over 90% for larger buildings, and around 20% for smaller single-family houses.

Covenant Figures

Signatory to the Covenant of Mayors since: 2008
Emission reduction ambitions:
% GHG emissions reductions by 2030: Climate neutrality

Financing the heat strategy

Budget: There is not a specific project-related budget, as providing district heating and decarbonising the system is considered business as usual for the utility.

Sources of funding: The funding primarily comes from the customers paying for heat, with some help from the city. They get financing from the financial markets.