As the European Union marches toward its climate neutrality targets, one key sector demands urgent transformation: district heating. Heating accounts for nearly 50% of final energy consumption in the EU, with a significant portion still powered by fossil fuels. In response, the LIFE22-CET-SET_HEAT project has emerged as a pioneering initiative dedicated to creating actionable investment plans for decarbonising district heating systems in four countries – Croatia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania.
A bold vision for sustainable heating
SET_HEAT is part of the EU’s Clean Energy Transition sub-programme under the LIFE initiative. It targets the development of a number of concrete investment plans in each participating country that support the upgrade and decarbonisation of existing district heating (DH) networks. These plans will be based on real-world conditions and will explore the technical, economic, and regulatory feasibility of transitioning DH systems to rely on renewable energy, waste heat recovery, and energy efficiency improvements.
Co-creation with local stakeholders
Unlike theoretical roadmaps, SET_HEAT’s investment plans are being co-created with stakeholders on the ground, including district heating companies, municipalities, energy utilities, and technical experts. This collaborative model ensures that the project is not only rooted in a local context but also designed for practical implementation and replication.
Foundational research and country insights
In its first six months, the SET_HEAT project has delivered key milestones. Notably, the project team has completed four baseline reports, one for each participating large district heating system. These documents offer a comprehensive overview of the current status of district heating systems, including:
- The share of DH in the national heat supply
- Main fuels used (e.g., natural gas, coal, biomass)
- Existing policy frameworks
- Technical limitations and infrastructure status
- Barriers to the uptake of sustainable solutions
These reports not only serve as the basis for tailored investment plans but also identify policy and market gaps that must be addressed to enable large-scale decarbonisation.
Strategic alignment with EU climate goals
The SET_HEAT project is well-aligned with broader EU strategies such as REPowerEU, the European Green Deal, and the Fit-for-55 package. These initiatives place strong emphasis on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, reducing dependency on fossil fuels, especially in heating, and accelerating the deployment of renewable energy technologies.
Through SET_HEAT, the participating countries can also feed insights into their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) and long-term strategies. The investment plans developed within the project are expected to contribute directly to the achievement of national climate targets by identifying bankable projects that are both technically feasible and economically viable.
A platform for knowledge sharing and replication
To support long-term impact and scalability, SET_HEAT is also working on the development of an online knowledge-sharing platform (https://setheat.polsl.pl/). This hub will host tools, methodologies, and case studies stemming from the project’s work. Energy planners, municipal authorities, and other stakeholders from across Europe will be able to access the platform to replicate SET_HEAT’s methodologies and tailor them to their own contexts.
This open-access approach is a critical component of the project’s mission, to not only decarbonise specific DH systems in four countries but also to create a European-wide ripple effect in clean energy planning.
In the SET_HEAT project, replication and standardisation are key elements of the project’s strategy. For example, elaboration of standardised approach and methodology was one of the SET_HEAT project’s tasks, which resulted in the framework document: Handbook for planning and development of investment projects. The central concept of the SET_HEAT project is to develop a set of replicable model investment projects. To define such projects, a multi-criteria parametric assessment was carried out within the group of preselected technologies. The technologies were assessed using various criteria, including:
- scientific – using the multi-criteria analysis method TOPSIS,
- theoretical – by assessing the heat maps of the areas concerned, and
- practical – by assessing the planned investment plans and interest in specific technologies of DH companies.
The activity resulted in a ranking list of DH technologies suitable for the decarbonisation of the sector. The resulting list is presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Final ranking list of DH technologies for decarbonisation programmes
Six Innovative Model Projects for DH Decarbonisation
Based on this list, 6 so-called model investment projects were defined:
- SET_HEAT_SEWAGE, which focuses on heat recovery from treated sewage,
- SET_HEAT_RETAIL, which focuses on heat recovery from supermarkets,
- SET_HEAT_WATER, which focuses on a river water heat pump,
- SET_HEAT_AIR, which focuses on an air source heat pump,
- SET_HEAT_SOLAR, which focuses on a solar plant as a distributed heat source,
- SET_HEAT_PTES, which focuses on a remote seasonal PTES facility.
The development of these models aims to overcome the barrier of limited access to specific technical information and guidelines that make it difficult for district heating companies to plan the implementation of particular technological solutions. These projects will be addressed with pre-feasibility studies and other ready-made documentation to facilitate take-up and implementation by DH companies. It is expected that they will form the basis for internal replication within the DH systems directly targeted by the project and the development of investment plans. In this way, a real change is supposed to be triggered.
Next steps and what to expect
In the coming months, the SET_HEAT team will shift from analysis to action. Building on the national reports and local stakeholder engagement, the project will begin drafting the 15 investment plans, each tailored to a specific DH system. These plans will outline the technical interventions required, investment needs, expected greenhouse gas reductions, and proposed financing mechanisms.
In parallel, the project will deepen its policy analysis to provide recommendations for removing regulatory barriers and incentivising sustainable DH investments.
Conclusion: A model for the future of district heating
District heating may be one of Europe’s oldest energy systems, but it’s now at the centre of a 21st-century transformation. Through the LIFE22-CET-SET_HEAT project, Croatia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania are stepping up to reimagine their DH networks as clean, efficient, and future-proof infrastructure.
By focusing on investment-ready solutions and fostering regional collaboration, SET_HEAT offers not just a blueprint for decarbonisation, but a model of how EU-funded initiatives can translate climate ambition into local action.
For more information, updates, and access to reports and tools, stay tuned at:
- https://setheat.polsl.pl/
- https://www.facebook.com/Life.SetHeat
- linkedin.com/company/setheat/
- twitter.com/SetHeat
- instagram.com/life.setheat/
- https://www.youtube.com/@SET_HEAT
For more information contact Lesia Logvynenko at ll@dbdh.dk
