The 5th RELaTED Newsletter is here

During the last few months, all the news has been overshadowed by the global crisis of COVID-19. This pandemic has turned the whole world upside down and shaken worldwide economies. Among other consequences, many of us agree that this crisis has highlighted the importance of the sustainable Energy Transition, and the need to search for solutions with technical and economic feasibility that will facilitate this transition.

That is why, now more than ever, we believe in the concept of ultra-low temperature, de-carbonized and smart networks developed in the RELaTED project as a solution that allows transforming the current district networks with greater use of renewable energies, lowering their operating temperature, and ultimately, optimizing the maximum use of available resources.

Despite the lockdown, the RELaTED team has continued working. The 6th RELaTED General Assembly had the project partners presented their advances in Ultra-Low Temperature District Heating during a four-day virtual meeting where the partners presented to the consortium their progress in the different work packages. They also explained their advances in the RELaTED Ultra-Low Temperature district heating solution and established a work plan for the following semester.

After this intense series of online workshops and virtual meetings, the consortium is satisfied with the progress made by all the project partners. The ultra-low temperature district heating solution proposed by the RELaTED project is closer than ever.

Nonetheless, the project team continues facing one of the most critical phases of the project, which is none other than examining the ultra-low temperature network concept by putting it into practice in the different real demonstration projects. In the case of the Iurreta demonstrator, the definition of the implementation project has been completed during the last months. The project aims to transform the current district network that supplies energy to the Ertzaintza base in Iurreta into an ultra-low temperature network. With this purpose, the defined solution includes the incorporation of thermal solar energy and the capacity of reusing reject heat from the new reversible heat pumps during the cooling season, through a new ultra-low temperature network that will allow reducing the operating temperature. Now it is time to deal with the administrative process to launch a tender for construction works. Intervention is planned to be mainly executed by the first half of the next year.

In this newsletter, you can also read about the rest of the demo sites and find out about the different interventions to be performed by the RELaTED project in the city of Belgrade as well as the new possibilities and solutions for developing the low temperature concept developed by RELaTED in Tarkon, a selected part of the existing district heating network in Estonia.

The newsletter offers as well information regarding the interconnection schemes for consumer installations and the main strategic and economic issues of ULT district heating for new development areas.

The project RELaTED has been involved in some events connected to the Solar thermal potential in the district heating system of Belgrade. You can also check the video recording of the webinar on Low Temperature District Heating, hosted by Celsius Initiative in partnership with COOL DH, to find out what was on the table.