Introducing District Heating in a Norwegian town – Potential for reduced Local and Global Emissions

This paper presents the results of a municipal energy system analysis where the role of district heating is emphasised. A simplified energy system model based on linear programming is used to study the impact of introducing biomass based district heating in the community. Based on existing situation, some cases are outlined where district heating with varying degree is included as an option. Based on the assumed input data the analysis shows that district heating can play an important role in reshaping the municipal energy system which is dominated by electricity and fossil fuels. A substantial reduction of CO2 emissions can be achieved by replacing fossil fuels and electricity. There is also a possibility to improve local environment by replacing inefficient wood combustion which gives high values of particulate emissions and other harmful compounds.