Innovative strategies for a sustainable transition of decentralised heat energy infrastructure

Abstract

The present article continues an earlier literature analysis of over 250 pieces of literature on how to implement the needed systemic and structural 'energy transition'. This text specifically focuses on techno-economic options for an equally needed 'heat transition', i.e., the fundamental restructuring of the global heat supply systems towards non-carbon sustainability. This literature study embraces the following eight themes: low temperature district heating; heat management in smart cities; large heat accumulators; integration of large-scale solar thermal systems; the Big Solar project in Graz, Austria; industrial waste heat; and island networks. In these fields, the technological state of the art is assessed to be sufficient for instantaneous political implementation and enactment, to save the global climate. As a conclusion, a structural 'heat transition' is an indispensable component of the 'energy transition' worldwide (and in the European Green Deal), based on solar and wind energy.