Offshore Grids in Low-Carbon Energy Systems

Under the climate neutrality paradigm, offshore wind energy is to become a cornerstone of the energy transition in Europe. Offshore grids are promising solutions to serve the twofold purpose of evacuating offshore generation and enhancing cross-border trade. This dissertation develops analytical frameworks for offshore transmission investments in low-carbon energy systems and their welfare impacts with new market actors and clearing effects.

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This guidebook was written between 2018 and 2021 by seventeen authors within the IEA DHC/CHP TS2 annex. The content is based on more than 250 literature references and 165 inspiration initiatives to obtain lower temperatures in buildings and heat distribution networks. The author group wrote 40 internal documents about early implementations of low-temperature district heating. Fifteen of these early implementations are presented in this guidebook.
The guidebook contains aggregated information about the main economic drivers for low-temperature district heating. It shows how to obtain lower temperatures in heating systems inside existing and new buildings as well as in existing and new heat distribution networks. An applied study of a campus system in Darmstadt shows the possibility of reducing temperatures in an existing heat distribution network with rather high temperatures. The competitiveness of low-temperature district heating is explored by analysing business models and heat distribution costs. Early adopters of low-temperature district heating are presented by examples and by identified transition strategies. Five groups of network configurations with fourteen variants are presented to be used for low-temperature district heating. Finally, all 165 identified inspiration initiatives and all 137 locations mentioned are listed.