Climate friendly heating production
Biofuel and pipe insulation make heating supply system more climate friendly
For many years The City of Herning has focused on making its heating supply system more climate friendly. The municipality was among the first to use biofuel in district heating production on a large scale. This has helped to reduce annual CO2 emissions to only 5,6 tons per capita, compared to 10 tons per capita on national level.
In 1982, The City of Herning established Denmark’s first combined heat and power plant as part of its district heating supply system. Initially the plant was fired by oil and coal, but already in the 1990s it was decided to convert a large part of production to biofuel usage.
Climate coordinator at The City of Herning, Trine Bjørn Olsen, explains: “Our aim is to have as many people as possible using environmentally friendly district heating. Therefore we made an early decision to establish small district heating plants in the surrounding villages so that many more buildings could be connected to the district heating network. Consequently, today some 70 per cent of the heating supply is provided by district heating plants – despite the fact that we have a relatively low population density.”
Renovation of pipes reduces heat loss
Herning Municipality has made a major effort to improve and modernise the district heating network. Measures taken include insulation of heating supply pipes and renovation of 136 km of aerated concrete insulated main pipe. These measures have reduced heat loss by 12 GJ/year per metre of pipe, which is high compared to the national average
Ambitious target for future heating supplies
While efforts so far have already contributed to reducing the municipality’s annual CO2 emissions per inhabitant to less than half the national average, The City of Herning still has ambitious goals for the district heating.
Municipal initiatives include doubling the amount of renewable energy used in district heating supplies through measures such as increasing utilization of biogas and establishing new solar heating systems. In addition heating production equipment is to be upgraded to an efficiency rate of 95 per cent and heat wastage in the pipe network reduced by 15 per cent by 2030.