Transnational roll-out beyond pilot sites will be facilitated by a regional vision development and preliminary feasibility assessment for rolling out 5GDHC technology. It has been carried by project partners in each of the 7 follower regions defined for the project, namely: Parkstad Limburg (NL); North-East France; Luxembourg; Flanders (BE); Ruhr-area (DE); Scotland; East Midlands (UK). It aims to define ambitions for low-carbon heating and cooling and to assess the feasibility and potential of 5GDHC's roll-out.
The regional visions that are now available for public use consist of 5 categories: renewable sources; existing infrastructure and planned developments; thermal demand and supply profiles; legal and policy framework; financing options. These assessments aim to find the potential of deploying 5GDHC in the follower regions after the project ends. This is done by mapping strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and barriers (SWOT) of 5GDHC for each of the regions. Some examples from these SWOT analyses can be found below:
One important common opportunity for 5GDHC roll-out comes from the current energy crisis in Europe, which has been a driving force for the acceleration of gas-free policies and programmes. Due to high energy prices, and countries paying higher prices for gas in Europe, together with geopolitical risks associated with natural gas, district heating grids become more interesting for policy makers as well as for citizens.
