About Pipes and People: Analyzing Factors for the Adoption of District Heating

This paper analyzes the current usage of district heating in Europe and examines factors that influence non-users to connect to district heating, based on a household survey. The results indicate that district heating is primarily used in cities and multi-family houses. This pattern is consistent across countries with minor variations. While gender does not show significant effects, age and attitudes significantly impact the adoption likelihood of the around 3200 non-users: Younger individuals with higher environmental awareness, higher technology affinity, and higher trust in policymakers, are more likely to adopt district heating (than their counterparts). Attitudes have a stronger influence than age. Further analyses show that climate friendliness and prices for district heating are equally important to end-consumers, while the majority prefers municipal ownership to private ownership. Hence, the policy framework should foster municipal ownership of climate-friendly and affordable district heating to increase deployment and reach climate and energy targets.