In most European countries today, we face a fundamental challenge: how to ensure affordable, clean, and reliable heating in residential buildings in the future. Many households depend on gas boilers, solid-fuel boilers, or inefficient electric heating. These systems are not only costly but often also highly energy-inefficient, prone to breakdowns, and difficult to maintain. At the same time, the heating sector contributes significantly to both energy consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions. Modernising heating and cooling systems is costly and technically and organisationally complex, especially where there is no central heat distribution. This is where a new model comes into play: community sharing of heat from local sources.
In the community heat-sharing model, residents of a building or neighbourhood join forces to build a local heat source that serves the entire community. Instead of individual boilers in each flat or house, a shared heating system is created, which means lower operating costs, greater comfort, and a significant reduction in the complexity of operation and maintenance.
The HeatCOOP project, of which SEVEn is a project partner, takes the idea of heat sharing further and systematically develops the community-heating model. It is not just a technical solution but also a comprehensive integration of economic, organisational, legal, and financial aspects. The main goal is to create conditions in which an energy community can emerge and function effectively – so that people not only have the opportunity to purchase heat together but also to participate in its management and the further development of the system. It is a way to democratise access to heat, strengthen local self-sufficiency, and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The benefits are economic (lower heating costs), social (strengthening of neighbourly ties and trust) and environmental (lower emissions, higher efficiency). Pilot projects are already under way not only in the Czech Republic but also in Austria and Slovenia, showing that innovative community solutions represent a realistic and cost-effective path to sustainable development for towns and villages.
Jan Pojar, Fakulta stavební, ČVUT v Praze
Jiří Karásek, jiri.karasek @ svn.cz
