782
V. Espinosa-Duró et al.
District cooling operates on the same principles as district heating, whereby chilled
water is produced centrally and distributed through a network of insulated pipes. This
implies the benefit of removing the requirement for energy intensive local cooling
in buildings, thereby extremely reducing its total carbon footprint, as previously
mentioned. The cold supply is managed in different ways: by using natural sources
of cooling, such as the sea or lakes (essentially in countries with cold weather),
through processes that have cold as a by-product (a good example is the transfer of
the recovered cold from the LNG re-gasification process in Barcelona port terminal of
Mercabarna’s refrigeration chambers through a DC system), and finally, and the same
as in DH systems, by means of excess heat resources, such as industrial processes or
WtE plants, in such case driven by absorption chillers often assisted by mechanical
chillers. These methods, jointly with the use of traditional mechanical compressor
chillers supplied by electrical energy, constitute the main basis strategies currently
used in DHC systems.
Hot and cold deliveries are managed by substations in connected facilities and
homes. Both kinds of these described technologies as well as the resulting DHC combination of them emerge as a feasible and consistent district energy (decentralized,
locally generated and used energy) alternative, that have been broadly exploited in
Europe, Russia and China in the last century due to their reliability and ease of operation for consumers and their relatively low cost (Gang et al. 2016). They are, however,
gaining increased interest among others in the European Union policy scene, due to
their high EE, exceeding 90% depending on the nature of primary sources, and their
low carbon potential. Thus, for example, 93% of the total heat demand in Helsinki
is powered by a DH integrated system supplied by cogeneration systems. This is
why the EU has ranked the solution adopted in Helsinki as the “Best Available Technology” (IEE 2012). Actually, the appropriate EU policy regulations such as the
above-mentioned EPBD and the more recent EU strategy on heating and cooling
(European Commission 2016), focus on this direction including the deployment of
more renewable energy streams (Lake et al. 2017). Werner (2017) concludes in his
analysis that DH/DC/DHC technologies have strong potential to evolve towards a
fully green energy sourced future tech, shifting our course towards an encouraged
more sustainable future.
As advanced at the beginning of the section, the strategic solution adopted by the
Tecnocampus Park since the very beginning for achieving a global climate coverage
was Tub Verd, which emerged as one of the responses to the Agenda 21 Mataró
commitments (a set of initiatives relating to the Aalborg Charter for Sustainable
European Cities approved in 2/04/1998) for promoting energy efficiency and the
use of renewable energy sources. Tub Verd is indeed a global DHC system that
recovers excess energy from two important municipal management infrastructures:
the Municipal Solid Waste Management and WtE plant (CTRSUM) and the Mataró
Wastewater Treatment Plant (EDAR). The harvested heat energy provided by waste
incineration in the form of steam is also used for electrical energy cogeneration
(however, note that this cogeneration process finalized in 2014 due to the rate bonus
reduction decreed by the Government; see Table 1). In the wastewater treatment
plant, bio methane is produced in anaerobic digesters. Organic matter remaining in
V. Espinosa-Duró et al.
District cooling operates on the same principles as district heating, whereby chilled
water is produced centrally and distributed through a network of insulated pipes. This
implies the benefit of removing the requirement for energy intensive local cooling
in buildings, thereby extremely reducing its total carbon footprint, as previously
mentioned. The cold supply is managed in different ways: by using natural sources
of cooling, such as the sea or lakes (essentially in countries with cold weather),
through processes that have cold as a by-product (a good example is the transfer of
the recovered cold from the LNG re-gasification process in Barcelona port terminal of
Mercabarna’s refrigeration chambers through a DC system), and finally, and the same
as in DH systems, by means of excess heat resources, such as industrial processes or
WtE plants, in such case driven by absorption chillers often assisted by mechanical
chillers. These methods, jointly with the use of traditional mechanical compressor
chillers supplied by electrical energy, constitute the main basis strategies currently
used in DHC systems.
Hot and cold deliveries are managed by substations in connected facilities and
homes. Both kinds of these described technologies as well as the resulting DHC combination of them emerge as a feasible and consistent district energy (decentralized,
locally generated and used energy) alternative, that have been broadly exploited in
Europe, Russia and China in the last century due to their reliability and ease of operation for consumers and their relatively low cost (Gang et al. 2016). They are, however,
gaining increased interest among others in the European Union policy scene, due to
their high EE, exceeding 90% depending on the nature of primary sources, and their
low carbon potential. Thus, for example, 93% of the total heat demand in Helsinki
is powered by a DH integrated system supplied by cogeneration systems. This is
why the EU has ranked the solution adopted in Helsinki as the “Best Available Technology” (IEE 2012). Actually, the appropriate EU policy regulations such as the
above-mentioned EPBD and the more recent EU strategy on heating and cooling
(European Commission 2016), focus on this direction including the deployment of
more renewable energy streams (Lake et al. 2017). Werner (2017) concludes in his
analysis that DH/DC/DHC technologies have strong potential to evolve towards a
fully green energy sourced future tech, shifting our course towards an encouraged
more sustainable future.
As advanced at the beginning of the section, the strategic solution adopted by the
Tecnocampus Park since the very beginning for achieving a global climate coverage
was Tub Verd, which emerged as one of the responses to the Agenda 21 Mataró
commitments (a set of initiatives relating to the Aalborg Charter for Sustainable
European Cities approved in 2/04/1998) for promoting energy efficiency and the
use of renewable energy sources. Tub Verd is indeed a global DHC system that
recovers excess energy from two important municipal management infrastructures:
the Municipal Solid Waste Management and WtE plant (CTRSUM) and the Mataró
Wastewater Treatment Plant (EDAR). The harvested heat energy provided by waste
incineration in the form of steam is also used for electrical energy cogeneration
(however, note that this cogeneration process finalized in 2014 due to the rate bonus
reduction decreed by the Government; see Table 1). In the wastewater treatment
plant, bio methane is produced in anaerobic digesters. Organic matter remaining in