Danish Parliament cuts taxes on excess heat

With the start of 2021 it has become much more economic to use excess heat in Denmark. New rules for taxes and administration will make it profitable for companies to use their excess heat or sell it to the district heating network. In the future, many Danish homes will be heated with the excess heat from, for example, the local supermarket’s refrigeration plant or industrial companies.

With the climate agreement, an unanimous parliament has removed excess heat taxes and heavy reporting requirements. The change in the law came into force on 1st January 2021, and it will have an enormous impact on Denmark’s ambition to reduce CO2 emissions by 70% in 2030. Excess heat has a huge potential as the heating of almost 10% of the Danish households which corresponds to about 200.000 households.

Within the EU research project EMB3Rs scientists from Technical University of Denmark (DTU) collect data of the waste heat sources in Nordhavn district in Copenhagen. The data will be used to develop new business models. EMB3Rs has thus the opportunity to demonstrate the viability of alternative systems, to other energy communities across Denmark, such as for example smart heat pump based local heating networks. Finally, the new regulation turns the chillers of supermarkets and other hidden heat suppliers into profitable, new, sustainable energy sources.