Last week, Estonian energy engineer Igor Krupensky visited the largest heat and power event of the year – Euroheat & Power congress, which took place in Rotterdam. What will be new in the coming years in Europe – and in particular in Estonia, in the field of heat? By 2030 in Europe, 8 million residential buildings will be connected to centralized heating – mainly instead of gas. Including 2.8 million in France and 1.8 million in Germany. This is a great challenge for engineers and builders! From what sources are they planning to start heating buildings? Residual heat has the greatest potential – including residual heat from sewerage, server parks, subways, factories, as well as from hydrogen production. We will soon see this in the example of the Väo hydrogen station in Tallinn (will be located on the territory of the Utilitas energy complex) – thermal energy obtained through electrolysis will heat the buildings of Tallinn. District cooling is also developing in Estonia, but the largest networks are currently in France and Sweden. A very large development of district cooling is planned in Paris – at the moment about 800 buildings are connected to this network, with another 3000 to be added in the coming years. The source of cooling, among other things, is cooling from the Seine River, so if you find yourself in the Louvre, remember that The museum is cooled by the energy of the river. There is also positive news for developers of heating networks – 1/3 of the investment in the network goes to the cost of pre-insulated pipes, the main component of which is steel. If in March 2022 (after the start of the war in Ukraine) steel cost $1,600 per ton, now the price is already $716. Thus, investments in the district heating network should become more profitable. In Estonia, prices for all district heating zones are open and on the Competition Department website https://www.konkurentsiamet.ee/media/832/download. Now Germany has taken our example (in terms of digitalization) and created a similar platform https://waermepreise. – those who speak German can now compare heat prices in Estonia and Germany. Also in the Netherlands, massive development of district heating is coming (for example, the use of gas as a heating source is prohibited in new buildings), but the weak point is “lack of knowledge in the field of district heating”, so perhaps Estonian designers and builders will come to the rescue – Estonia's first district heating network was built in the 1950s – so we have over 70 years of experience! Read RusDelfi wherever it is convenient for you. Follow us on Facebook, Telegram, Instagram and even TikTok.
