For HafenCity, the solution to the challenge of providing a sustainable heating supply that could adequately meet the energy needs of its buildings was district heating. Given that approximately half of Germany’s overall energy consumption can be attributed to heating its buildings, selecting an environmentally friendly technology such as district heating in HafenCity helps secure the new quarter’s green credentials. Furthermore, the solution is timely, given that the majority of the country still relies on fossil fuels to heat its homes.
In essence, district heating systems make use of heat produced in multiple locations such as supermarkets, data centres, solar thermal etc., and distribute it through a network of pipelines to a large number of end users. Doing so ensures that heat that possesses little or zero value in one place e.g., surplus heat from industry, supermarkets, or data centres, can be transformed to high value in places where there is strong demand for heat. This is a key driver of sector integration and makes district heating a highly useful instrument to deploy to attain climate objectives.
Furthermore, given that district heating can utilise a number of different energy carriers (which is not the case for individual heating solutions), heat production is highly flexible. Offering the possibility to select different fuel and heat sources enhances security of supply and allows for the cheapest and/or greenest fuel to be selected, which is beneficial for companies, consumers, and the environment.
Hamburg possesses a slightly higher share of district heating than the national average, with approximately 19% of all households in the city supplied with district heating. This meant that HafenCity could connect all buildings to the two existing district heating networks in the city and combine this with decentralised, local heating distribution units rather than build new infrastructure, thus minimising costs. Two new combined heat and power plants located in the Oberhafen part of HafenCity supply additional heating, and a nearby copper refinery supplies surplus industrial heat generated from gas scrubbing. This means that rather than wasting the excess heat by discharging it into the Elbe River, as was formerly the case, it can now be used to provide a sustainable source of heating.