Abstract
District heating (DH), by harnessing local excessheat resources, integrating power-to-heat technologies, and providing high fuel flexibility, offers a key pathway for accelerating heat-sector decarbonization and enhancing energy-system flexibility and security. This study looks at the current state and future potential of DH in decarbonizing the heating sector and providing power grid flexibility in Norway, Austria and the United States. Austria is the country with the highest DH potential, and also favorable conditions for sector coupling through the use of biomass-based combined heat and power and large-scale heat pumps. Norway has a more limited DH potential due to lower heat demand density and wide-spread use of electric heating; however, increased use of DH in the largest cities could mitigate grid congestion challenges and increase grid flexibility. In the U.S., DH systems are scarce, but geothermal DH and cooling hold a high potential for both heating decarbonization and reducing grid cooling-related congestion.