This report aims to present the results of the work carried out within the sEEnergies project pertaining to estimating construction costs of new district heating networks in Germany.

This project has followed a similar methodology to Heat Roadmap Europe when estimating the costs of district heating systems. Nonetheless, several improvements have been introduced to attain more realistic results. On the one hand, it has been carried out a detailed geographic analysis of two large Danish networks so the necessary pipe length can be better appraised. Moreover, both the distribution network and service pipes have been taken into consideration. On the other hand, pipe construction cost data from each country has been used to the maximum extent possible.  

This part of the project has only focused on the pipe network and has not taken into account other elements for the development of a district heating system, such as heat supply plants or the connections to the heat demands via a substation. 

The results for Germany show that the country has a significant potential for District Heating expansion. Approximately a quarter of the total heat demand could be supplied with a cost lower than 20 €/MWh and nearly half of the heat demand would be economically viable with a higher marginal cost of 30 €/MWh. Nonetheless, there is significant regional variation, and whilst the most urban districts (kreise) could reach penetration rates above 70% for a marginal cost of 20 €/MWh, the least dense would fall below 10% of the heat demand.