What is solar district heating and how do you use it? Here are some resources to get you started!

To tackle climate change, Europe has an enormous task ahead: to decarbonise around 6,000 district heating networks across the continent. Solar heat is one of the proven, available, cost-effective measures to help complete this enormous task.

Understanding Solar District Heating

But what is solar district heating? How does it work and who is using it successfully already? You can find all this information in the Efficient Solar District Heating Info Package, including several case studies from across Europe with monitoring data, testimonials from investors and some technical guidelines for the preliminary planning stage.

This information package was developed by the research network Task 68 - Efficient Solar District Heating of the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme.

In total there are 264 towns and cities using solar district heating over 16 European countries. The leading countries are Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Austria – with Denmark ahead of the game, setting world records.

In Mengsberg, Germany, for instance, the energy community owns the district heating system. The city has built up an energy community that owns and operates a 100 % renewable district heating network with a wood chip boiler and a solar collector field. Everyone who wants to join the energy cooperation makes a deposit of EUR 4,000 per building. In return, the transfer station is installed, and the district heating pipes connected to the house.

In Grenaa, Denmark, solar heat is used to reduce the pressure of biomass. This allows the city to save money, since less wood chips need to be bought. This also preserves the biomass boiler, as the solar system takes over the summer operation, which means the boiler is less stressed.

Finding inspiration from successful cases

You can also find more examples in the brochure Solar Heat for Cities, also developed in the context of the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling programme, that includes well documented Solar District Heating case studies from Denmark, China, Serbia, Austria, France, Latvia, and Germany.

Financing Solar District Heating

For more information on financing and operator models for energy communities, you can find more information in the Manual Public participation models for solar district heating.

Spreading the Word about Solar District Heating

To explain solar district heating in your city, you can download the infographics part of the Solar Heat for Cities brochure, available in 3 languages (German, France, English), that can be used free-of-charge in third-party publications, available here.

Want to know more?

The Covenant of Mayors Europe will soon be organizing a webinar on the subject – stay tuned!