Ranagård 4GDH

In the Ranagård district, a new district heating solution is currently being tested in a three-phase innovation project. The new solution is a so-called fourth-generation district heating system (4GDH), which includes a new technology with a third pipe for circulation – an invention developed at Halmstad University.

The first phase was about implementing the technology in practice. The technology has been implemented by Halmstad Energi och Miljö (HEM), making the project a concrete example of innovation. Extremely low return temperatures are already being measured, which is a positive sign. However, not all buildings are yet using the 4GDH system to its full extent – something that was expected, as these are the first tests of the three-pipe system.

This led to the second phase of the project, which focused on barriers to the acceptance and adoption of new technologies. Structured interviews were carried out with 26 companies in the energy and industrial sectors, from the north to the south of Sweden. One aim was to explore whether and how methods and strategies for acceptance need to be developed. The results show that technical systems with long payback periods often meet resistance – something that also appears within the organisations themselves. The study also shows that the district heating sector is not uniform, especially when it comes to resources. Therefore, it is difficult to find a single method or strategy that works for everyone.

The project is now in its third phase, which focuses on evaluating how the technical solution performs in operation.