Germany has currently approximately 80 large cities with more than 100 000 inhabitants, which implemented mainly centralized district heating systems.
Cities between 20 000 and 100 000 inhabitants, in which approximately 590 municipalities exist, show a lower usage of centralized district heating systems.
Municipalities are a core partner in the research project, as they participate in many usage areas of energy, heat and cooling as provider (municipal energy provider) as well as user (institutions in the municipalities), with high potential for CHP or CCHP.
Municipal users of trigeneration are e.g.:
- Local hospitals
- Local swimming
- Local data centers
- Administrative buildings
- Local wastewater treatment plants
Users with a low need of cooling and which are therefore mainly in the focus for CHP usage:
- School buildings
- Housing development areas
Municipalities are often stakeholders of many companies and can therefore influence the energy supply directly or indirectly. Important participants are:
- Local utilities companies
- Local housing associations
- Infrastructure: hospitals, libraries, exhibition centers, freight centers, airports, etc.
Apart from the explicit examples of cooling need in municipalities mentioned above, users of centralized or decentralized district heating play as well an important role. Existing users of district heating as private households, industry, handcrafts or public facilities can be asked for potential usage of heat for cooling.
During the project, the following cities will be analyzed: