Your choices:
1 Biomass (solid); 2 Electricity; 3 Comfortable indoor climate
| What is your resource? | What do you want to deliver? | What is the service the customer wants? |
| Biomass (digestible sludge) | District cooling | 3 Comfortable indoor climate |
| Biomass (fermentable sludge) | District heating | Electricity |
| 1 Biomass (solid) | 2 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 | Local heating (ind. house) |
Electricity is the king of energy carriers and should generally not be used for indoor climate control.
However, it often is and in warmer climates this takes place using air-conditioning units and electrical water heaters for the production of tap water.
In densely populated areas such as cities and larger communities, and from strict efficiency and thermodynamic standpoints, this is an un-economic use of the exergy provided and ought to be replaced by district heating and -cooling systems based on CHP-production so as to free the electricity originally used for climate control for other purposes and at the same time increase the electricity production capacity.