The paper “The impact of energy-related city properties on optimal urban energy system” has investigated how six Swedish cities cost-effectively can secure their energy supply by 2050 while being fossil-free. The cities studied are Gothenburg, Luleå, Malmö, Norrköping, Skellefteå, and Stockholm.
It shows that electricity could account for 70-85 percent of heat production in district heating networks, primarily from large-scale heat pumps. To avoid overestimating the importance of heat pumps, the paper has assumed heat pumps with relatively low efficiency (corresponding to the efficiency of air heat pumps).
The paper has been based on the industry’s need for electricity and hydrogen, charging infrastructure for the transport sector, and the cities’ need for heat and electricity. The supply of electricity and heat is assumed to come from wind power and nuclear power via power lines into the cities, solar cells, waste heat, combined heat and power, thermal storage, and battery storage.
