LIFE4HeatRecovery

EU LIFE - LIFE4HeatRecovery - Low Temperature, Urban Waste Heat into District Heating and Cooling Networks as a Clean Source of Thermal Energy. LIFE4HeatRecovery will demonstrate a new generation of highly efficient district heating networks. New generation DH networks operated at very low temperatures can directly recover heat rejected by chillers (at around 30 to 40°C, e.g. from air-conditioners, supermarkets’ refrigeration and industrial processes), using rejected heat to cover heating needs in other buildings. However, a large number of high temperature 3rd generation DH network exists, which normally can recover thermal energy only from high temperature industrial processes. In these cases, high-temperature water-to-water heat pumps are needed to rise the temperature of the heat rejected to the network’s levels. With LIFE4HeatRecovery, customers assume both the role of energy consumers and producers. Trading schemes will be elaborated having the energy users as a focal point, trying to gather social acceptance and triggering the wide adoption of the solutions. LIFE4HeatRecovery activities will also be focused on the development of innovative financing mechanisms based on public-private collaboration, contributing to the uptake and large-scale replication of reliable business cases.