Provincial heating
Sweden is one of the world leaders in district heating. Yet, there are rural areas in Sweden that are too scarcely populated to see any major developments. In these areas thinking small is a great idea.
Uppsala. 95 % of Uppsala City's heating needs are met by district heating. In the years to come small scale district heating networks will be developed in the rural areas around the city (Photo: Europrobe)
Uppsala Municipality is situated on the east coast of Sweden. The regional capital, also named Uppsala, is the fourth largest city in Sweden with around 145 000 inhabitants. Energy use per inhabitant in Uppsala is among the very lowest in Sweden. But as a part of a national effort the County has plans to reduce its energy use even further, by 20 % compared to 1990 within 2016. To achieve this it is central to phase out the use of oil and electricity in heating. The County expects to have completed this phase out in 2010.
Heat from peet
The city of Uppsala has an extensive district heating network. An impressive 96 % of Uppsala city’s heating need is today covered by district heating. The figure for the municipality as a whole is 75 – 80%. The combined heat and power plant outside Uppsala is run by the energy company Vattenfall, and incinerates 80 tons of peet and pellets per hour. From this Uppsala gets 245 MW of heat and 120 MW of electricity. Building district heating infrastructure in urban areas is one thing, finding a way to replace oil and electricity in the rural areas, outside the reach of the district heating network, is something else.
Containers with peat outside Uppsala combined heat and power plant, waiting to be transformed into central heating (Photo: Vattenfall)
Big savings in small towns
To meet this challenge, Uppsala has teamed up with Bionär Närvärme, a company that delivers small scale district heating. In cooperation with the municipality Bionär will develop small scale district heating based on bio fuel suitable for small communities. By doing this in the small towns of Vänge, Bälinge and Björklinge Uppsala Municipality hopes to save 1335 tons of CO2 emissions, which roughly corresponds to 500 cubic meters of oil.
In the town of Björklinge (population around 3000) municipal buildings such as the school, library, kindergarten, retirement home and 23 apartments were connected in December 2009. Heat is produced by the local mill, burning its waste, heating water which is lead into the two kilometer heating network. By autumn 2010 private households will be offered to connect to the heating grid. The small district heating grid in Björklinge alone will reduce Uppsala Municipality’s CO2 emissions by 800 000 kg.
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