Heating and cooling accounts for about half of global final energy consumption and is responsible for more than 40% of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions.
There are significant opportunities for cities to become more energy efficient, reduce carbon emissions, improve air quality and reduce their water consumption, by moving away from fossil fuels and changing how buildings heating and air conditioning systems source thermal energy.
Wastewater temperatures are stable and neutral all year around. Compared to air, wastewater is warm in winter and cool in summer. These characteristics mean wastewater can be used via heatpumps for heating and/or for cooling of buildings, data centres or district energy networks.
The thermal characteristics of wastewater offers significant increases in the electrical efficiency of heating & air conditioning systems. And there are savings in potable water consumption when cooling towers are eliminated.
Using wastewater for heating and air conditioning systems allows buildings to stop using fossil fuels for heat, offering significant opportunities for cities to reduce carbon emissions.
To allow cities to take advantage of this unused energy source, planning for the implementation and mapping the thermal capacity within a wastewater network should be done.
Applied Energy are global experts in this topic and have undertaken wastewater network heatmapping studies for 10 cities.
Wastewater heat recycling is quickly gathering popularity in Europe, with more than 1000 systems estimated to be in operation.
Wastewater network heatmaps are now being used by cities when considering planning of new developments, refurbishment of existing commercial buildings, energy strategy studies for campuses etc.
This presentation will explain the topic and the process used for heatmapping a city wastewater network, show examples of projects from around the world and discuss examples of how some wastewater authorities are now generating a new revenue stream from selling heat from wastewater networks.