Macroeconomic benefits of integrating industrial waste heat in district heating networks

The recovery of industrial excess heat and its reuse in district heating networks increase overall energy efficiency, thereby leading to a decrease in carbon emissions and energy costs. In addition to the anticipated project-level profitability, investments and avoided energy import expenditures generate public value-added. The present paper aims to quantify the macroeconomic effects (i.e. gross domestic product and employment growth) resulting from the implementation of a generic project feeding in 1 GWh. This generic project has been developed based on existing practice examples from Austria. It has been determined that waste heat predominantly substitutes for natural gas or biomass. For each GWh of waste heat fed into the district heating network per year, the high-price natural gas scenario results in an additional €0.9 million of GDP and approximately 8 jobs, while the low-price gas scenario yields approximately €0.3 million and 2 jobs. Substituting domestic biomass does not avoid import outflows; therefore effects during the operational phase are diminished, while the effects during the construction phase are analogous to those of natural gas scenarios. • Existing waste heat integration in DH has an average payback period of 9 years. • A practice-based generic cost-benefit-analysis is the basis for macroeconomic simulation. • We quantify the GDP and employment effect of waste heat integration in DH. • Public value-added is highest when imported natural gas is displaced. • Substitution of domestic biomass has positive but smaller effects.