District Energy Environmental Benefits

An important method of heating buildings is by hot water produced during electricity production and piped around whole districts, providing both heat and hot water. This extremely efficient use of fossil fuels demands a co-ordination of energy supply with local physical planning, which few countries are institutionally equipped to handle. Where it has been successful, there has usually been local authority involvement in or control of regional energy-services boards, such as in Scandinavia and the USSR. Given the development of these and similar institutional arrangements, the cogeneration of heat and electricity could revolutionize the energy efficiency of buildings world-wide.

Our Common Future World Commission on Environment and Development (The Brundtland Report), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. pp. 200.

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