‘World’s largest untapped energy source’: How waste heat could help Europe end its reliance on gas

The report from Danish engineering firm Danfoss highlights the potential of waste heat as the world's largest untapped energy source, which could help Europe end its reliance on gas. Currently, two-thirds of global energy is wasted as heat, with this figure expected to rise to 55% by 2030. Waste heat is the excess warmth generated by everyday processes, such as refrigeration in supermarkets, and can be captured and reused using heat pumps.

These pumps upgrade the temperature and pipe the heat into buildings or district heating networks. A Danish aluminium manufacturer has already saved the annual heating and hot water gas use of 132 homes by adopting this process. The report estimates that reusing Europe's waste heat could save €140 billion a year, potentially powering Paris for 48 years.

In Germany, industrial waste heat emitters could supply over 30% of the country's district heating demand. Experts argue that industry must make heat recovery standard practice, while governments need to remove barriers to make waste heat a more cost-effective alternative to gas.

Brief written by urgent.news from Euronews's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.