[wgd]

I was wondering how exactly this hot water would be used, since in the US most hot water heating is done within a single building, but it turns out that Berlin has a large network of hot-water pipes for what is known as "district heating" [1], which as of last year served three quarters [2] of all households.

[1] http://www.seon.info/2013/09/andrew-deys-berlin-blog-distric... [2] https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/city-berlin-aims-decarb...

[theluketaylor]

District heating can be highly effective. Common in Soviet-bloc areas, near power stations to take advantage of waste heat, and on university campuses. Downtown Toronto even has district cooling by pumping cold water from the depths of Lake Ontario and using it to cool office buildings

https://www.enwave.com/case-studies/enwave-and-toronto-water...

I'm particularly interested in thermal storage solutions since we already have the technology, it can be a lot cheaper than batteries, and use of fossil fuels for direct heating is a huge opportunity for electrification. Thermal storage can be built right now to absorb excess solar generation in cold temperatures and allow coasting through cloudy or other low generation days. I would love to dedicate some otherwise useless space in my basement to thermal storage, pumping heat in when electricity is cheap and slowly releasing it through my house to avoid using energy during peak/expensive periods.

[1986]

NYC has this too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_steam_system