The use of renewable energy sources as biomass, solar thermal solutions, geothermal energy, and waste heat is becoming more popular in Europe. The transition of district heating systems from fossil fuels to renewables is the next step in the development of district heating, but there is still a lot of work ahead for everyone, not only in the local level but in the whole world.

HVAC Conference

Chairs of Opening ceremony: prof. dr Branislav Todorović, prof. dr Bratislav Blagojević and dr Milovan Živković (Photo: Serbian Society for HVAC&R).

These are some of the topics discussed at the regional conference Renewable Energy Sources in District Heating and Cooling Systems held in Belgrade last december. This event was organized by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Federal Ministry of Finance of Austria, in partnership with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and was part of  the 50th International HVAC&R Congress and Exhibition.

During the working conference, a team of international experts presented examples of good practices in renewables use in district heating in Serbia as the implementation of large-scale solar district heating (BigSolar) systems in the cities of Pančevo and Bor, or the use of alternative sources of heat by Belgrade’s public heating company Beogradske Elektrane, thanks to Belgrade’s Vinča landfill project, mobilised by Beo Čista Energija Ltd., and the ultra-low temperature district heating systems developed by the RELaTED project.

Ljubisa Vladic, Deputy of Production and Distribution Manager at PUC Beogradske Elektrane, presented the advances of the RELaTED ultra-low temperature district heating concept in Belgrade, into the session titled “Energy Solutions for Cities of the Future”(Download the presentation in Serbian here: Ljubiša Vladić, Beogradske Elektrane: Solar thermal potential in the district heating system of Belgrade City ).

The 50th International Congress and Exhibition on Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning (HVAC&R) Congress and Exhibition took place in Sava Center, Belgrade, on December 4‒6, 2019. Thematic fields cover new solutions based on RES – solar and geothermal energy sources; modern district heating and cooling systems; recommendations for energy consumption predictions in residential, business and public buildings; buildings of future, smart buildings and cities; cooling systems of today and tomorrow; new, smart HVAC&R systems in buildings; relations between human body and buildings… The selected themes correspond to actual demands in world and in Serbia.