Demand for District Cooling Does Not Freeze

District cooling is being used in more and more buildings to lower temperatures. Last year, 2024, the amount of district cooling sold increased by almost 16 percent to 237.2 GWh, following a nine percent increase the year before, the Association of Gas and Heat Supply Companies (FGW) announced in a press release on Friday.

"The heat records of recent years are fueling the demand for district cooling across the entire country," Katalin Griessmair-Farkas, deputy managing director of the Gas Heat Association, is quoted as saying. "We are noticing that, for example, more and more operators of shopping centers or offices, as well as housing cooperatives, want to cool their buildings with district cooling."

In 2024, both the district cooling network and the installed district cooling capacity were expanded. The latter increased from 186.2 to 203.3 megawatts (MW), and the network was extended by 3.1 kilometers to 42.6 kilometers.

Vienna Focused on District Cooling

District cooling is currently primarily used in Vienna, but this type of building cooling is also already possible in Linz and St. Pölten. Bregenz is expected to be added this year. In the coming years, Klagenfurt (2026) and Graz (2030) are also expected to follow. Over the next five years, the association expects almost a doubling of the installed capacity to around 370 MW.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.