- First ever stand-alone heat bill in the history of the State highlights the importance of switching away from fossil fuels as Ireland’s main heat source
The government has approved the General Scheme of the Heat (Networks and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024. The development of this legislation will pave the way for the growth of a district heating industry in Ireland that would be highly efficient and low carbon, helping us to meet our national and international climate targets. Importantly, it would also establish a regulatory model that ensures price protection for large and small heat network consumers.
District heating utilises a centralised heat source to heat multiple buildings across a potentially wide geographical area. This allows for several types of heat sources to be used to heat up to thousands of buildings across an entire village, town or city. Heat sources could be waste facilities like that in Dublin’s Poolbeg, or they could be large energy users like data centres or pharmaceutical companies that have access heat. If the heat source is low-carbon, it means that an entire district can be decarbonised almost instantly.
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s (SEAI) 2022 National Heat Study found that district heating has the potential to supply over 50% of heat nationally and, crucially, it identifies the potential to use this technology in large towns and cities across Ireland where demand is concentrated, and heat sources are prevalent. Similarly, Codema (Dublin’s Energy Agency) identified that, collectively, there are enough waste heat and renewable sources in Dublin to heat over 1 million homes and that approximately 80% of heat demand in Dublin could be met by district heating by 2050.
Minister Ryan opened Ireland’s first district heating network in Tallaght, Co. Dublin, in April of last year. This uses waste heat from the Amazon Data Centre, which is now providing low-carbon heat to South Dublin County Council public buildings and Technological University Dublin, with further plans to provide heat to 133 affordable apartments next year and up to another 3500 homes over the next three to five years. There are also plans in place to use waste heat from the Poolbeg incinerator to heat approximately 50,000 buildings in the surrounding area.
While, historically, many district and communal heat networks across Europe have relied on non-renewable energy sources such as gas, district heating is now being used as a key technology in many European countries to decarbonise heat. For example, low carbon district heating systems supply 90% or more of all heat in sustainable cities such as Copenhagen and Stockholm.
Although district heating is a well-established technology with approximately 70 million district heating customers across the EU, it is new to Ireland with only one district heating network developed by South Dublin County Council in Tallaght.
Minister Ryan said:
“By approving the General Scheme of this Bill, the government is recognising that district heating has the potential to make a lasting contribution to Ireland’s heat needs and climate goals.
“I launched the first District Heating Scheme in Tallaght last year and already, the pipes for district heating are going into the new housing development at the Glass Bottle site. We will have district heating there in 2026 and can continue then all the way up the Liffey to heat Dublin City Centre.
“The same can happen across the country. I’ve visited every County Council in the country and my first question to those Councils has been, where are your heat sources? District heating has the potential to heat entire towns, reducing costs for consumers and helping us lower our emissions.
I am also pleased that my department is engaging with the process of the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund to prioritise funding for the development of national district heating infrastructure. I believe that the certainty of multi-annual funding will have a real impact on the development of district heating in Ireland.”
Ireland has very ambitious targets within the Climate Action Plan, to comply with EU directives and our sectoral emissions ceilings, to deliver district heating of up to 2.7 TWh by 2030. That will require a very significant and immediate scale up and acceleration of projects.
The introduction of legislative and regulatory frameworks for the district heating sector by way of this General Scheme will be crucial in providing policy and regulatory certainty to potential project sponsors and investors in district heating in Ireland. In addition, amendments are being made to the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH) to facilitate supports for district heating. The process to access Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund investment for district heating projects has also started, and with the active role the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, the SEAI and local authorities are taking in the area, tangible progress is being made in developing the project pipeline for the sector.