The Times
Summary
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Inga and Jorgen Skov’s gas bills doubled. “But getting rid of our boiler wasn’t about money,” Inga says. “We replaced it because we didn’t want to pay for Putin’s war effort.”
Many people who felt the same opted for a heat pump, and sales of the devices spiked across Europe. But living on the outskirts of the Danish town of Sonderborg, the Skovs had another option. They decided to join the local district heating system. Sonderborg’s planners first laid this network of hot water pipes in response to the 1973 Opec oil embargo. But they have been expanding it to help solve a 21st-century challenge: climate change.
The biggest energy-saving measure has been the expansion of the district heating system, which now extends to three quarters of households. It used to run almost entirely on gas, but recently its operators have begun paying businesses across the town to vent their waste heat into it.
One business selling heat into the network is the Coop 365 Discount supermarket next to Danfoss’s headquarters. Most supermarkets vent the heat from their refrigerators out into the open air, but this supermarket recycles that heat to keep itself warm, then sells the remainder into the network.
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