On 19 and 20 October, the first meeting of the starting new project SUPPORT DHC: Supporting a fast implementation of low-grade renewable energy and waste heat for district heating and cooling took place in Munich. The project coordinator hosting all partners in Munich is WIP - Renewable Energies.

Over the next three decades, the transformation of the DHC sector to achieve the goal of a carbon neutral Europe by 2050 will be a particular challenge for DHC owners and operators and all related stakeholders, such as public authorities, involved in this process. The main objective of the SUPPORT DHC project is to support them in these activities by developing transformation plans in particular concrete investment plans for the fast implementation of renewable energy and waste heat in the DHC sector in six European countries.

During the two-day meeting, project partners discussed the work of all work packages and agreed on a plan to support dedicated 'DHC frontrunner' cases and 'DHC follower' cases, also take into account replication of results beyond SUPPORT DHC target countries. All activities will help to increase the capacity of DHC operators to manage and lead the transformation process, as well as improve the knowledge, skills and qualifications of service providers and other stakeholders to support transformation and plan new investments.

For the study visit, the partners visited the Eavor-Loop, geothermal demonstration, which extracts energy from a depth of 4,500 metres and supplies the entire region with around 8.2 MW of electricity and 64 MW of heat. This saves around 44,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. The Eavor-Loop solution represents the world's first truly scalable form of clean energy.

The meeting was a great opportunity to get to know each other and discuss upcoming project activities together.

SUPPORT DHC is co-funded by the European Union under the LIFE+ Programme within the grant agreement No 101119914. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.