The Role of District Energy in Decarbonizing Heating and Cooling in Cities
Community-scale District Energy in many parts of the world is a proven, cost-effective approach to systematically decarbonizing heating and cooling for homes and buildings in an urban setting. Many communities in North America have strategically recognized this potential, yet none have managed to achieve the necessary scale deployment. This presentation will explore the approach used by the City of Ettlingen in Germany to expand the availability of low-carbon district energy services using a technically flexible islanded approach. The possible ways this approach could be viable in US and Canadian Cities will be discussed.
Speaker Bio
Stefan Blüm studied Physics at the University of Karlsruhe, and received his Doctorate in Natural Sciences from the Institute for Applied Physics in Karlsruhe in 1996.
Dr. Blüm has contributed and directed projects around industrial/commercial and institutional energy concepts focused on energy efficiency and district heating throughout his career. Starting in 2007, he worked with MVV group, the German multi-utility as the level of Head of Department in the areas of clean energy and technology. In 2012 he became the Head of Energy Services at Stadtwerke Ettlingen GmbH, the utility providing heating, cooling, natural gas, electricity, and water services to the City of Ettlingen. A major focus of his role is to accelerate the decarbonization of heating through integrated efficiency and low-carbon supply solutions.