3D illustration showing a positive indication of the visual impact of the district cooling plant and storage tank (green) in Taarnby
Read more about our engineering services within district energy
The EU recognises district heating and cooling as one of the main infrastructures allowing decarbonisation through smart sector integration. In 2021, the EU selected the Taarnby project as one of eight cases for a study on integrating renewable and waste heat and cold sources into district heating and cooling. The Taarnby case was chosen because it is a remarkable example of smart sector integration, illustrating the key role that district heating and cooling systems can play in building integrated energy systems. Read the study here.
In 2020, the Taarnby project received the Heat Pump City of the Year award from the European Heat Pump Association in the DecarbIndustry category, which recognises the best project which involves heat pumps on industrial level with the most innovative application in the market. Read about the award here.
Denmark is well-known for championing sustainable initiatives, being cited globally as an example to follow when addressing questions related to the future of energy. In fact, Denmark seems to have grasped the formula for a sustainable and cost-effective approach to energy without compromising on economic growth and community development. Living up to the country’s standards, Ramboll has supported Taarnby Forsyning (TF) – a municipally-owned utility company – establishing one of the smartest and most advanced district heating and cooling systems in the world.
Ramboll performed:
The business plan highlighted:
This approach reflects the cost-effective synergy between district heating and district cooling through the co-production of heating and cooling. Moreover, the heat pump installation and the storage tank can be established at the waste water treatment plant and be connected to the high voltage grid, constituting an additional synergy.
Based on this assessment, TF subsequently decided to establish a new district cooling business unit that will service the new urban development area, located north of Copenhagen Airport (CPH).
Considering the different demands and resource availability during summer and winter time, a solution was found to optimise the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the system.
The solution includes:
The new cooling unit comes to complement the existing district heating system, which produces energy cost-effectively based on cogeneration (CHP), residential waste and natural gas, covering around 60% of the total heat demand for large buildings in the municipality, including Copenhagen Airport.
Effectively, the project adds:
In essence, this project demonstrates how smart cities are built on smart solutions that promote the synergy between energy and the environment while benefiting the local community.
“We believe that this project will inspire politicians and energy experts from communities and campuses from all over the world, both for the unique synergies between sectors and for the concept of a local community-owned multi-utility serving the interest of the energy consumers. It has already been adopted as one of our case studies presented at international conferences and in the IEA Annex73 project for energy solutions for resilient low carbon communities,” says Anders Dyrelund, Ramboll.
Ramboll has been a trusted consultant for TF since 1980. Over the years, we have assisted TF with several energy endeavours, encompassing all sorts of energy planning and district heating projects and now district cooling as well.