Spatial Energy Planning – Räumliche Energieplanung für die Wärmewende

Spatial Energy Planning (SEP) is a potential game changer for the heating sector and becomes an important lever for the integration of innovative and sustainable heating technologies and new market models. The upheaval on the energy market requires information and coordination in order to exploit the potential of all renewable forms of energy and make the best possible use of available resources and infrastructure. Market imperfections must be resolved, investment security guaranteed and new business models made possible (especially for grid-supported heat supply).
The application of SEP in the instruments of public control (regulation and governance) can make a significant contribution to the necessary support, coordination and cost efficiency (of investments and financing) in the heat transformation process. Innovative local authorities are prepared to play an active role. In this project, three federal states (Vienna, Styria, Salzburg), their capitals and pioneering municipalities of all sizes as well as the most renowned Austrian research institutions in the field of technology are working together to provide all the necessary foundations for the introduction of spatial heat planning – as a role model for Austria and other European states.

The digitisation enables the provision of all necessary basic principles. The HEATatlas provides the complex urban energy connections, e.g. potentials of renewable energy sources, infrastructure and dynamic heating and cooling demands in high spatial resolution and thus makes long-term energy and infrastructure planning possible. The necessary foundation of the HEATatlas is reliable and updated data in high granularity. Together with partners from the public administration, the project can guarantee the best available data. Research institutions across Europe have developed sophisticated concepts and models for the representation of heat densities. The project pulls these together and creates a synthesis with reference to practice that can be used directly for the purposes of spatial energy planning in public administrations. In addition, there is the discussion and deepening of energy zone concepts as a central basis for public regulation and administration processes. A HEATapp prototype is programmed as the core of the system, which enables automated queries and well-founded analyses and prepares the implementation of SEP in the three concrete application areas of public administration: Site development, spatial planning and development as well as monitoring of energy strategies.

Programming compatible with OGD and basemap.at supports the functionality in all regional and urban GIS infrastructures of the participating regions and beyond.

Innovation lies in the process – the unique partner constellation, high degree of implementation orientation and far-reaching multiplication possibilities make the project a strong lever for the heat turnaround.