Guidelines on community-led heating and cooling

Heating and cooling technologies

Geothermal energy

Geothermal energy is thermal energy extracted from the Earth’s crust. It combines energy from the formation of the planet and from (safe) radioactive decay. Geothermal energy has been used as a source of heat and/or electric power for millennia.

Geothermal heating, using water from hot springs, for example, has been used for bathing since Paleolithic times and for space heating since Roman times. It is a fully renewable form of energy that is deeply steady, as heat flowing from Earth’s interior is continually replenished by the decay of naturally occurring radioactive elements. Geothermal energy will remain available for billions of years.

However, geothermal energy is not available everywhere, and its technical analysis can be expensive.

Example

Kliniek Sint-Jozef is a centre for psychiatry and psychotherapy in Pittem (Belgium). The site is in full development, with various new construction projects in combination with historic buildings. Kliniek Sint-Jozef issued a tender for the supply of sustainable heating and cooling for the site, for which the energy cooperative Beauvent was awarded an ESCO in January 2022.

The project consists of a sustainable boiler room in which the heat generators are installed. In addition, there is a borehole energy storage field from which heat is extracted by the heat pump. This field is also used for cooling during the summer periods. The system provides low-temperature renewable heat supplied by an electric heat pump connected to 94 boreholes installed under the football field.

Example

In Sint Amandsberg (Ghent, Belgium) Energent is building a heating network running on shallow geothermal energy in combination with a water heat pump. To do this, the citizen energy community is carrying out 78 drillings to a depth of 150m for the construction of a Borehole Energy Storage field, where a number of vertical pipes are heated and cooled by the soil. This project will provide citizen-owned geothermal energy to 18 homes and 30 apartments in its first instance.

Example:

Bürger-Energie-Genossenschaft Neuburg-Schrobenhausen-Aichach-Eichstätt eG (BEG), is an energy cooperative operating in Bavaria, counting more than 900 members. It was set up in 2013 to initiate, finance and operate new renewable energy installations.

BEG’s first cold heating and cooling project was initiated in 2022 in collaboration with the local council of Königsmoos, a town of 5,000 inhabitants. The municipality wanted to implement a sustainable energy supply for a new housing development without relying on fossil fuels, due to rising gas prices and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The new system now provides renewable heating and cooling for 40 homes and 160 residents. Since, the same system has been set up for 65 homes in the city of Schrobenhausen.

The cold heating and cooling district heating system was chosen for its sustainability, its adaptation to new residential areas, and its affordability and scalability. To minimise the installation’s environmental impact, the cooperative opted for an approach mixing different renewable technologies: shallow geothermal energy, decentralised heat pumps, and rooftop PV installations for self-consumption.

Does your energy community use geothermal energy, and you would like to see it in these Digital Guidelines? Send an email to info@energycommunityplatform.eu.