Your choices so far:
1 Comfortable indoor climate; 2 District cooling
| What is your resource? | What do you want to deliver? | What is the service the customer wants? |
| Biomass (digestible sludge) | 2 District cooling | 1 Comfortable indoor climate |
| Biomass (fermentable sludge) | District heating | Electricity |
| Biomass (solid) | Electricity | Process cooling (< 0 °C) |
| Geothermal | Fuel: Gaseous | Process heat/steam (50 - 150 °C) |
| Sunshine | Fuel: Liquid | Process heat (150 - 1000 °C) |
| Water | Fuel: Solid | Process heat (> 1000 °C) |
| Wind | Local cooling (ind. house) | Transport |
| Residual oils/fats etc | ocal heating (ind. house) |
District cooling will be available only in cases when also district heating is available, i.e. in conjunction with large enough district heating systems. To be feasible, the production of the district cooling must generate an added value for the plant owner.
Since the fundamental idea with district cooling production is to co-produce heat and electricity on hot days and then to use the heat produced for the production of cooling, it becomes clear that district cooling will be available mainly in such plants that use fuel firing for the production of district heating.
Hence, geothermal energy cannot be used for this purpose.
As for solar heating, it may well contribute significantly to the district heat production during hot and sunny days. In such cases, this heat will also be part of the heat used for the production of cooling. However, this is usually not the cases and this route is not mentioned further in this material.
With hydroelectricity and wind power, the situation becomes different since district cooling may, in principle, be produced using electricity-consuming compressor cooling machines. However, the capital costs for the district cooling network will be significant and the cost for the end-user is likely to become too high.