Heat Highway

As the electricity transmission network connects many generation, storage and consumption units, the current options for waste heat feed-in and interregional exchange are limited. Heat Highway is therefore investigating interregional heat transfer networks (HTN) that connect multiple (i) industrial waste heat and other sustainable sources, (ii) district heating networks, (iii) industrial process heat sinks, and (iv) storage. These HTN connect consumption centers and industrial sites, crossing areas with other heat sources and sinks. The project reduces risks by involving many supply and demand nodes and creating innovative business models. The concept will go far beyond the state of the art in terms of the number of actors, interregionality and networking. Heat Highway is developing two 100 km long HTN in Upper Austria and Styria and is driving three sections for practical implementation: It is preparing KPC investment funding applications for the Upper Austrian HTN sections “Central Area” and “Linz” and initializing the next steps and stakeholder participation in Styria. Heat Highway aims to develop an interdisciplinary toolbox for HTN implementation, to anticipate the medium-term use of waste heat from innovative processes, to develop a cost-effective pipe system and then to create a “lean pipe prototype” and the technical controllability of a Systems with several players based on 3D simulations “virtual HTN demonstrator”. The investigations in four “follower regions” ensure reproducibility.