Techno-economic analysis of a heating network to support the retail business case

Abstract

Historically, district heating, also called heat networks, is a large scale, low-carbon solution to heat decarbonisation in countries like Denmark, Sweden, and in apartment blocks in the USA, former Soviet bloc countries, and in China. Significant barriers have inhibited the widespread deployment of heating networks. These barriers include regulatory, capital costs, an economic and financial framework, social and a market business case. The large capital costs are one of the main barriers to the successful implementation of district heating, and this is then amplified by the lack of robust business models in different jurisdictions. The power sector has been and is currently still decarbonising, and policy makers have realised that they urgently need to address decarbonisation of heating (and cooling) energy demands in order to hit our net zero targets. Hence this study aims to address this challenge by undertaking a techno-economic analysis of a heating network to support the retail business case, which is favourable to both the supplier and end consumer. Note in this work, the focus was on heating, particularly for the case study on Northern Ireland, where decarbonisation of heating is more the issue.

Date of Award	Dec 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Sponsors	Northern Ireland Department for the Economy
Supervisor	Aoife Foley (Supervisor), David Laverty (Supervisor) & Seán McLoone (Supervisor)