This guide focuses on strategies, key activities, tools, financing and engagement that result in structuring a district energy (DE) system that is well-planned, designed, built and operated throughout the major stages of its lifecycle, often many decades long. Based on case studies from Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, South Korea, Netherlands, Sweden, UK and USA, this report draws on best practices, experience and enabling policy to focus on the challenges and benefits of the various governance and financing models in place around the world today. It also identifies the major drivers for project development or reinvestment, to explore how different aspects of projects have motivated certain stakeholders to support these long and complex processes. This report will outline which benefits have been prime drivers and which governance and financial structures have helped produce different benefits to different stakeholders. The intent is to provide multiple lenses through which a city, campus, or neighborhood can view their unique DE challenges and opportunities. Every effort has been made to identify the aspects of these structures that are transferable to other locations, and to emphasize the findings, lessons, and approaches that are relevant and actionable for localities around the world.
In this inaugural annual report on energy investments around the world, the International Energy Agency (IEA) looks at the lifeblood of the global energy system: investment. The ability to attract and direct capital flows is vital to transitioning to a low-carbon economy while also maintaining energy security and expanding energy access worldwide. The success or failure of energy policies can be measured by their ability to mobilise investments. This new report measures in a detailed manner the state of investment in the energy system across technologies, sectors and regions. The analysis takes a comprehensive look at the critical issues confronting investors, policy makers and consumers over the past year.
This report identifies modern district energy as the most effective approach for many cities to transition to sustainable heating and cooling, by improving energy efficiency and enabling higher shares of renewables. This publication is among the first to provide concrete policy, finance and technology best practice guidance on addressing the heating and cooling sectors in cities through energy efficiency improvements and the integration of renewables. The recommendations have been developed in collaboration with 45 “champion” cities, all of which use modern district energy, and 11 of which have set targets for either carbon neutrality or a 100 per cent renewable energy supply. This report is also the first to consolidate data on the multiple benefits that cities, countries and regions have achieved through the use of modern district energy, in an effort to support evidence-based policy recommendations and to raise awareness of the significance of the heating and cooling sectors, which have been insufficiently addressed in the climate and energy debate.
