Quelle place pour les réseaux de chaleur dans le système énergétique Européen de 2050 ?

District heating networks (DHNs) are the preferred solution for decarbonizing urban heat demand. Beyond their economicefficiency stemming from economies of scale, DHNs provide access to various renewable sources such as geothermalenergy, waste heat, or solar thermal energy. However, these sources will not be sufficient to meet the entire DHN demandand will have to be completed by technologies powered by biomass or electricity. This has significant implications for theenergy system, as decarbonization increases pressure on biomass resources and the power system. In this context, thisthesis aims to analyze the development potential of district heating networks and to assess their impacts on the entire energysystem by 2050.After a detailed review of the literature on the challenges of heat decarbonization, we present a geographic method for generatinglarge-scale DHN development scenarios, with an application to Europe. We then describe a method for aggregatingDHNs, enabling more accurate modeling in energy system models. Finally, these contributions make it possible to analyzethe impact of electrified DHNs on the European energy system through two studies. The first study shows that, by substitutingbiomass and biogas, electrified DHNs could reduce the total system costs by decreasing dependency on methane, whether itis imported biogas or produced by methanation. The second study analyzes and quantifies in depth the flexibility provided byDHNs to the power system compared to individual electric heating: this flexibility is significant at daily and weekly timescalesand helps to reduce loss-of-load energy.