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Barriers to district heating deployment : insights from literature and experts

Sneum, Daniel Møller LU orcid ; Billerbeck, Anna ; Kachirayil, Febin and McKenna, Russell (2025) In Energy Policy 206.
Abstract

Over the last century, district heating (DH) has only achieved global market shares of around 10 %. To reach its potential market shares of 25–50 % in Europe by 2050, growth must drastically accelerate. But deployment of DH is hindered by barriers, potentially slowing this fast-paced transition of the heat system. In this paper, we identify barriers to the deployment of DH through manual and GPT-aided literature reviews. These reviews are complemented by a survey of 94 DH experts from Europe and North America, regions which account for approximately 20 % of global- and 93 % of European DH supply. We find that economic and political barriers are considered both most significant and most difficult to overcome. The importance of individual... (More)

Over the last century, district heating (DH) has only achieved global market shares of around 10 %. To reach its potential market shares of 25–50 % in Europe by 2050, growth must drastically accelerate. But deployment of DH is hindered by barriers, potentially slowing this fast-paced transition of the heat system. In this paper, we identify barriers to the deployment of DH through manual and GPT-aided literature reviews. These reviews are complemented by a survey of 94 DH experts from Europe and North America, regions which account for approximately 20 % of global- and 93 % of European DH supply. We find that economic and political barriers are considered both most significant and most difficult to overcome. The importance of individual barriers varies between countries based on the existing shares of DH and renewable heat in DH supply respectively. The most important individual barriers include high installation costs, regulatory uncertainty and insufficient policies to integrate DH with other energy sectors. If a faster pace of system-integrated DH deployment is desired, it is critical to reduce the underlying investment risk of district heating projects through an expansion of integrated energy system planning, and regulations such as zoning and mandates.

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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Barriers, District energy, District heating, Expert survey, Review, Sector coupling
in
Energy Policy
volume
206
article number
114780
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:105011277251
ISSN
0301-4215
DOI
10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114780
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d7ed65ca-9084-436c-8761-2033f3341112
date added to LUP
2025-10-28 15:39:28
date last changed
2025-10-28 15:39:40
@article{d7ed65ca-9084-436c-8761-2033f3341112,
  abstract     = {{<p>Over the last century, district heating (DH) has only achieved global market shares of around 10 %. To reach its potential market shares of 25–50 % in Europe by 2050, growth must drastically accelerate. But deployment of DH is hindered by barriers, potentially slowing this fast-paced transition of the heat system. In this paper, we identify barriers to the deployment of DH through manual and GPT-aided literature reviews. These reviews are complemented by a survey of 94 DH experts from Europe and North America, regions which account for approximately 20 % of global- and 93 % of European DH supply. We find that economic and political barriers are considered both most significant and most difficult to overcome. The importance of individual barriers varies between countries based on the existing shares of DH and renewable heat in DH supply respectively. The most important individual barriers include high installation costs, regulatory uncertainty and insufficient policies to integrate DH with other energy sectors. If a faster pace of system-integrated DH deployment is desired, it is critical to reduce the underlying investment risk of district heating projects through an expansion of integrated energy system planning, and regulations such as zoning and mandates.</p>}},
  author       = {{Sneum, Daniel Møller and Billerbeck, Anna and Kachirayil, Febin and McKenna, Russell}},
  issn         = {{0301-4215}},
  keywords     = {{Barriers; District energy; District heating; Expert survey; Review; Sector coupling}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Energy Policy}},
  title        = {{Barriers to district heating deployment : insights from literature and experts}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114780}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114780}},
  volume       = {{206}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}