Denmark: New union for supporting Renewable Energy Community projects formed

Have you heard of combined shallow geothermal drillings, with horizontal arrays, serving individual houses for heating and cooling?

  • It’s a climate friendly energy system that provides cheap and efficient heating and cooling for houses.
  • It’s a sort of “Cold District heating” because the system basically just provides a closed loop with continuous supply of refrigerant which is shared amongst the houses. Each house has its own heatpump that is using the collective system.
  • It’s a system that works for large and small numbers of houses, and therefore suited for different sized communities. In Danish it’s called “Termonet”, in English Thermal net.

In the European funded project Co2mmunity, the concept has been developed in scale 1:1 in the municipality of Middelfart to support Renewable Energy Cooperation’s. However, a lot of work still has to be done to disseminate the advantages, possibilities and know-how.

Therefore, Danish frontrunners organised a virtual meeting where they founded the union “Termonet” on the 16th of March 2020.

The unions newly elected chairman, Søren Skjold Andersen, says: ”All the necessary technology is in place. We know all about heatpumps and buildings, but most often, systems are developed for just one building. There are massive advantages in combining the systems in collective systems. We are only seeing the beginning of the development that will produce new financial models, new ways for spatial planners to develop new cities and retrofit existing, new ways for entrepreneurs and organisational experts to provide climate friendly solutions. With our new union “Termonet” we have created a platform where people can meet and share knowledge. Anyone can join us, and we already have industry, research, private organisations and representatives from the public sector in our union.

In Denmark, there are five termonet systems, some are running and some are under construction. They can be visited in Silkeborg, Skjoldbjerg, Brenderup, Værløse and soon in Jyllinge. Feel free to contact the union Termonet, if you want to learn more about the initiative or technology.

Chairman, Søren Skjold Andersen, CEO Geodrilling, tlf. +45 22 44 08 71.

Boardmember, Morten Mejsen Westergaard, municipality of Middelfart and partner in Co2mmunity, tlf. +45 2054 4795

There is a Danish site www.termonet.dk and further information in English is to be elaborated.