In order to fulfil the political goals, as to achieve an energy system which is independent of fossil fuels by 2050, the political agenda has mainly been focusing on the electricity-, heating and transportation sector, while the cooling sector has been overlooked.
In order to investigate this aspect in connection to the conversion of the energy system, this master thesis seeks to analyse and quantify the energy savings and CO2 reductions. That can be achieved by utilising the potential for district cooling in Denmark, which is found to socioeconomically feasible.
This leads to the following problem formulation:
How large energy savings and reductions in the CO2 emission can be expected, if utilizing the potential for district cooling and which barriers are associated with the implementation hereof?
This problem formulation is investigated on the basis of the theoretical framework, which is developed for this thesis. Furthermore EnergyPLAN is applied in order to evaluate how the implementation of district cooling affects the dynamics of the existing Danish energy system. In order to identify barriers, which affects the diffusion of district cooling, a more qualitative approached is chosen, which includes literature study and several interviews.
On the basis of this master thesis it is concluded, that energy savings corresponding to 1.3 TWh is to be achieved by utilizing the potential for district cooling. Furthermore the total Danish emission of CO2 is expected to decrease by approximately 445.000 ton.
However there are some barriers, which are limiting the diffusion of district cooling in Denmark. The combination, of these barriers affects the attractiveness of the market for district cooling. This implies that a single barrier cannot be identified as being the most influential, but the combination reduces the investments in district cooling in Denmark.