New Business Opportunities for Solar District Heating and Cooling

Solutions developed

New opportunities need to be recognised, derived from the role of renewable district heating for implementing the EPBD recast and the Directive for the Promotion of Renewables.The aim of SDHplus is to foster the changeover of district heating to solar energy and the transfer of SDH know-how to six learning countries ES, FR, HR, LT, PL, SI as well as the institutionalising of high level dissemination events at European level.The SDHplus project builds on the previous IEE project SDHtake-off.

Main results

- New SDH business models and SDH marketing strategies open up new opportunities for DH suppliers and other market actors and thus create a relevant contribution to the market growth. 13 European business models have already been documented and made available on the project website. 7 pilot implementations took place in 6 different countries.
- Show cases are created for integrating SDH into various specific district heating situations. These show cases respond to the market barriers of DH stakeholders (e.g. combination with CHP, high costs). Practical know-how is transferred to market actors, reliable data and new knowledge is made available and plant replication is stimulated.
- SDH markets develop in the newcomer countries ES, FR, HR, LT, PL, SI. It is estimated that they can reach a capacity of 500 MWth until 2020.
- Innovative marketing and business opportunities for SDH have been analyzed. - - Five marketing strategies have been developed for SDH, as well as marketing instruments concepts. 9 pilot implementation took place in 6 different countries.