Thermal energy mapping for the decarbonization of building heating systems

加拿大社区要实现其本地温室气体净零排放目标，就需要用可行的无碳替代品取代使用化石燃料为建筑物室内空间供暖的做法。位于社区内的脱碳热源需要有效的资源利用和弹性，剩余（废）热，屋顶太阳能，有机废物来源的生物燃料，氢气，地热交换和空气源是最常见的一些。虽然在利用这些当地资源方面取得了商业技术进步，但相对于当地供暖需求的资源供应情况尚未得到很好的描述。当地热资源测绘是公用事业和政府能源基础设施规划和决策的一项基本科学能力，如高峰容量要求。这对于量化随时间变化的供应和需求不匹配至关重要，例如太阳能光伏和空气源热泵的普遍组合。热测绘对于规划与其他部门的互联也至关重要，例如电网的脱碳和车辆的电气化。脱碳供暖方案的选择推动了对重大天气事件中断的能源弹性考虑，例如当地热力网络和微电网的自我供电能力。该跨学科项目旨在开发一个开放式无碳供热资源地图工具，以改善政府在所有脱碳供热方案中的社会经济选择决策。为了确保地图绘制工具在为脱碳决策提供信息方面发挥重要作用，来自伯灵顿、汉密尔顿和浩盾山的社区合作伙伴将共同开发该工具，协助收集数据以填充地图，并就其有效性提供反馈，以指导当地脱碳实施战略。一旦与当地合作伙伴验证，研究结果将通过向加拿大所有社区和市政当局提供热测绘工具来动员，以建立标准化的脱碳供暖识别和规划流程，可用于实施其气候行动计划，以实现净零。

For Canadian communities to achieve their local net-zero GHG emission goals, the use of fossil fuels for indoor space heating of buildings needs to be replaced with viable carbon-free alternatives. Decarbonized heat sources located within communities are required for efficient resource use and resiliency, with residual (waste) heat, rooftop-solar, organic waste sourced biofuels, hydrogen, geothermal-exchange, and air source being some of the most common. While commercial technology advancements have been made in utilizing these local sources, resource availability relative to local heating requirements has not been well characterized. Local thermal resource mapping is an essential scientific capacity for utility and government energy infrastructure planning and decision-making, such as peak capacity requirements. This is critical for quantifying time varying supply and demand miss-matches, exemplified by the prevalent combination of solar PV and air-source heat pumps. Thermal mapping is also critical for planning interconnections with other sectors, such as decarbonizing of the electricity grid and the electrification of vehicles. The selection of decarbonized heating options drives energy resiliency considerations to major weather event disruption, such as the capacity of local thermal networks and electrical microgrids to self-power. This interdisciplinary project aims to develop an open access carbon-free heating resources mapping tool, to improve government decision-making regarding socio-economic selection across all decarbonized heating options. To ensure the mapping tool achieves high impact on informing decarbonization decision making, community partners from Burlington, Hamilton and Halton Hills will co-develop the tool, assist with data collection to populate the map, and provide feedback on its effectiveness to guild local decarbonization implementation strategies. Once validated with local partners, the research results will be mobilized by making the thermal mapping tool available to all communities and municipalities across Canada, to establish standardized decarbonized heating identification and planning processes that can be used in the implementation of their Climate Action Plans to achieve net-zero.