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Description
Despite the fact that many Polish cities have a very well-developed district heating system, a huge number of houses still use individual boilers for heating and domestic hot water preparation. The vast majority is based on fossil fuels, mainly coal, causing air pollution and emitting huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
GreenHeat project Idea:
For the selected Pilot Case in Legionowo , a participatory procedure for the gradual elimination of individual fossil fuel boilers will be developed and carried out. This will lead to a recommendation on the target structure of the new local energy system based on renewables, indicating potential technology suppliers, listing financing sources and providing the business model of operation worked out together with local stakeholders. System should be socially and economically accepted and feasible in a reasonable time. This process will be used to develop a methodology to ultimately eliminate individual fossil fuel boilers from other locations/cities.
Project employs a multidisciplinary approach to achieve the project objectives, literature review, data analysis, surveys, individual and group in-depth interviews, system dynamic models, energy system analysis and modelling, co-creation and participatory process to support decision making processes.
The work was divided into thematic work packages looking at the problem from different perspectives; those are social, technical and economical. There is also one work package combining all of the aspects and developing tools - system dynamics (SD) models to support the transdisciplinary analysis.
Representatives of various stakeholders will be invited to cooperate: residents, technology suppliers, city council representatives, local businesses, potential investors, government agencies and NGOs.
Summary of project results
The Greenheat project was launched in response to the pressing need to decarbonize residential heating systems in Poland, by replacing individual fossil-fueled boilers with low-carbon alternatives. Conducting the pilot in Legionowo was crucial due to the city''s reliance on outdated heating technologies contributing to local air pollution and carbon emissions.
To achieve its objectives, the project employed an iterative and locally embedded process of social engagement. This approach aimed not only to implement technical solutions but also to engage various stakeholders in the collaborative development and to raise civic awareness about sustainability and air quality concerns. Three series of participatory workshops and consultations were conducted with local stakeholders, including residents, city authorities, representatives of businesses and energy companies. By involving stakeholders in the decision-making process, the project fostered ownership and commitment among participants, enhancing the sustainability and acceptance of proposed solutions.
From a technical perspective, accessing data is essential to planning decarbonization processes. Therefore, sources and methods for obtaining this data at the city level have been indicated. The preferred solutions were shown for replacing fossil fuel boilers, at the level of a single house, neighborhood and city area. It was proposed to create a local decarbonization fund and a pilot distributed heat pump and PV system was installed, which could be its foundation. For the neighborhood of several communities in multi-family buildings fueled by gas, a common heating system based on heat pumps, storage, and renewable energy sources (RES) installations was proposed and consulted with the residents. The potential business model related to these processes was consulted with the stakeholders and the final decision of the residents on its implementation is awaited. Attention was also drawn to the role of district heating (DH) in decarbonization and the need for its gradual transition to renewable sources was agreed with the city authorities.
The project achived direct benefits to the case-study communities, but more importantly there is a strong demand from other similar communities and local governments who want to use the knowledge, tools and solutions developed in this project.
The project has received an award as ''Energy Transition Leader'' at the Polish Climate Congress for the implementation of the project.
The importance of the project extends beyond immediate benefits, with expected long-term impacts including sustained reductions in carbon emissions, improved public health outcomes, and economic resilience through energy cost savings.
Summary of bilateral results
Norwegian partners from NILU brought to the consortium a high scientific level in the field of work on air quality and the use of cheap measurement methods. Based on measurements carried out in Poland and internal consultations, two publications were created in high-ranking scientific journals. Partners from UIB, on the other hand, brought knowledge on the use of tools for System Dynamic Modeling, which waspreviously absent within the consortium. Based on this program, a tool was developed that helps in the analysis of complex processes and in consultations with stakeholders. The cooperation also resulted in joint publications. Through cooperation, we improved the state of our knowledge and skills.Through the relations established during the project, new opportunities for cooperation on publications and on subsequent projects opened up.Based on these relations, a joint international project has already been submitted to the Interreg program together with partners from Norway, Sweden and Poland. Further project applications are also planned in the Horizon program.The Norwegian partners participated in internal consortium meetings during which relationships were established between the individual researchers and it seems that the cooperation may extend beyond the subject of the current project and contribute to the personal scientific development of the individuals.