Heating and Cooling: Open Source Tool for Mapping and Planning of Energy Systems

Project Information

HotMaps

Grant agreement ID: 723677

DOI

10.3030/723677

Project closed

EC signature date 15 September 2016

Start date 1 October 2016

End date 30 September 2020

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 2 996 870,00

EU contribution

€ 2 332 803,75

Coordinated by

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - HotMaps (Heating and Cooling: Open Source Tool for Mapping and Planning of Energy Systems)

Reporting period: 2019-10-01 to 2020-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Hotmaps project will develop a toolbox that supports local, regional and national heating and cooling mapping and planning processes.
The toolbox is:
• User-Driven:
Developed, demonstrated and validated in close collaboration with 7 European pilot areas. (Pillar 3)
• Open Source
The tool and all related modules will run without requiring any other commercial tool or software. Use of and access to Source Code is subject to Open Source License. (Pillar 2)
• EU-28 compatible
The tool can be used in all 28 EU Member States thanks to a default open data set. (Pillar 1)

The overarching goal of Hotmaps is the development of an open source heating / cooling mapping and planning toolbox and to provide default data for EU-28 at national and local level. These data and toolbox allow public authorities to identify, analyse, model and map resources and solutions to supply energy needs within their territory of responsibility in a resource and cost efficient way. Those results will help authorities to develop heating and cooling strategies on local, regional and national scale which are in line with RES and CO2-Emission targets on national and EU level.
The software will be developed in a close cooperation with the target group, within the consortium and beyond. Seven pilot areas across Europe (Germany, Ireland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom) are involved in the project for the identification of user needs as well as the validation and demonstration of the toolbox to provide a tested and user friendly software entirely based on user needs.
National and local authority energy planners are supported with a guidance handbook, which is developed within the project and includes best-practice guidance for strategic heat planning, based on knowledge and experience from lead countries and regions in Europe. Moreover, a guidance how to carry out the comprehensive assessment of efficient heating and cooling according to the energy efficiency directive (EED), taking into account the recent experiences from the first round completed end of 2015 by Members States is developed.

The Hotmaps projects runs from October 2016 to September 2020. The project is funded by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union. The consortium consists of research institutes as well as pilot areas. The project is coordinated by Technische Universität Wien – TUW.

The project reached all its objectives and impacts and the Hotmaps toolbox is now covering all aspects proposed in the GA.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The main work performed in month 37-48
• holding training workshops (physical and online),
• gathering feedback from participants,
• include feedback in the latest release of the toolbox,
• Update Hotmaps scenarios,
• Add new functionalities to the toolbox (e.g. vector layer upload and use in CMs),
• create a more flexible platform for Hotmaps Wiki and finalize the Wiki contents,
• connect Hotmaps CMs to the their Wiki pages,
• add stand-alone CMs to the GUI of the toolbox,
• final round of updating the default data sets,
• finalize toolbox development,
• develop heating strategies for the 6 Hotmaps pilot cities,
• develop a DH cooling concept for Aalborg Municipality,
• Presentation of the Hotmaps in CA-EED,
• Promotional materials, Hotmaps tutorial and brochure,
• Participation in events, webinars, and conferences for disseminating Hotmaps,
• Final Hotmaps conference.

Overall, the project reached all its objectives. The Hotmaps Toolbox is in TRL 7 state and can be reached via https://www.hotmaps.eu

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The expected progress of the project Hotmaps beyond the state of art is on the development, implementation and promotion of an open source toolbox on strategic heating and cooling planning, simultaneously providing generic default data for EU-28 required for the planning process. As stated in the proposal, Hotmaps will improve the integration of systematic approaches and tools in the energy planning process at local, regional and national level, thus facilitating the transformation into sustainable energy systems. An intensive communication and exchange with the target group (pilot areas and strategic heat planners across Europe) and open source energy modelling community will make sure that we will identify the relevant user needs, research questions and policy needs during the implementation phase.
Thus, the project Hotmaps can contribute to reduce barriers to use quantitative methods and mappings and can increase the quality of heating and cooling processes. Furthermore, the provision of generic default data for EU-28 will enable all future users (scientists, energy experts) to enhance the quality of their research and energy planning while at the same time spending less time on the data collection. The additional possibility to integrate available data for the corresponding area allows using the toolbox for the strategic heat planning even if the default data for EU-28 are not required. The integration of different regional scales and the consistency check between different spatial resolutions support the users in the estimation of the effects of political measures on future energy demands and emissions.
Summarizing, Hotmaps aims to strongly increase the use of this concept in the EU, creating a community on the database and toolbox, and building up capacity and disseminate relevant knowledge to the target group. This has the potential to lead to remarkable savings in CO2 emissions, primary energy as well as fossil fuel demand in the mid to long term all over EU-28. Moreover, cost parameters in the toolbox will strongly focus on the socio-economic perspective. This will increase the economic benefits for society in heating systems related decision making. Through the integration and dissemination of the principles of strategic heat planning it will furthermore increase the integration of all affected interest groups in the planning process, thus enhancing the social dimension of sustainability in the process of heat planning.
It´s to underline that Hotmaps enhances the advent of a new generation of skilled planners in the energy section aware of the need of systematic tools in the energy planning. Hotmaps aims to support the planning process in order to transform municipality and/or regions into energy efficient systems. This infers the implementation of local supply chains including the creation of new highly-skilled jobs, stimulating the local economy.

Overview about the three pillars of the Hotmaps project

Map of the partners and pilot areas in the project