The Need for Local Thermal Energy Planning

Abstract

Space heat has a great share in total energy consumption—complemented by an increasing energy demand for space cooling—and is responsible for a high share of carbon dioxide emissions in the building sector. Energy and climate change policies therefore require a transition to a climate-friendly thermal energy supply. These changes will have to consider spatial characteristics on the local level, because thermal energy supply relates to spatial structure. Urban density, population structure, existing infrastructure, and locations of renewable energies are factors that characterize thermal energy supply as a spatially relevant topic, and suggest its consideration in spatial planning on the local level. What local thermal energy planning might look like is still an open question. In older literature, the example of energy planning in Denmark has been discussed, but also the current example of Swiss spatial energy planning might be an interesting impulse for future research on local thermal energy planning.

Keywords:

• Energy
• space heat
• thermal energy planning
• spatial energy planning
• Switzerland

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Prof. Sabine Hofmeister, Prof. Jochen Monstadt, and Dr Donna J. Drucker for their feedback on this paper.

Note on Contributor

Susanne Schubert, has been a researcher and lecturer at the Chair for Spatial and Infrastructure Planning at the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany) since 2010. She is working on her PhD thesis on spatial planning and heat supply.