Heating and cooling European buildings with lakes?

¹ School of Architecture, Design and Civil Engineering, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, 8400 Winterthur, Switzerland
² Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Université degli Studi di Padova, via Venezia 1 - 35131 Padova, Italy
³ Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Aarhus University, Inge Lehmanns Gade 10, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark

Abstract

Lake-source thermal district networks can save energy and emission for heating and cooling buildings. However, where and to what degree such systems could be an effective solution is unclear. We simulated that covering 17% of the cooling demand and 7% of the combined heating and cooling demand near European lakes is economically feasible and does not cause severe lake water temperature alterations in most cases.