Dublin is to lead an €11.5 million project to develop district heating across north west Europe.  HeatNet consists of 14 partners across five countries, including the Dublin energy agency Codema as lead partner and South Dublin County Council. The project will bring over €1.5 million worth of funding to Dublin. This funding will support South Dublin County Council in developing Dublin’s first large scale public district heating network, with an initial project connecting the Council’s headquarters at County Hall and Tallaght Hospital.  The district heating system will save South Dublin County Council up to 8,900 tonnes of CO₂ per year, the equivalent of taking 1,700 cars off the road. Tallaght Hospital will play a major role in supporting the project, and there is also potential for other businesses and buildings in the area to link up with the heating network as it rolls out. District heating utilises waste heat from sources such as electricity generation through a network of insulated pipes, and can typically provide space heating and hot water to residential and commercial buildings far more sustainably and economically than traditional methods using individual gas or oil boilers. The HeatNet project will promote the roll-out of the most advanced form of this technology, known as 4^th Generation District Heating, which integrates heat, electricity and energy storage to achieve an overall smart energy system, combining high energy efficiency, high shares of renewable energy and waste heat resources. “Up until now, waste heat from the generation of electricity has simply been dumped - mostly into Dublin Bay - but HeatNet presents a great opportunity to go straight into a twenty-first century energy system,” said, Director of Codema, Gerry Wardell. “We see district heating as the key to lowering carbon emissions in Ireland’s heating sector, and by linking up with other public sector organisations such as Tallaght Hospital, we can make an even greater contribution towards meeting our national and EU targets,” said Eddie Conroy, county architect with South Dublin County Council. HeatNet will also include Dublin City Council as an associate partner, and the project will support the feasibility of other district heating networks in the Dublin region. The project will run up until 2020, and will receive European Regional Development Funding through the INTERREG North West Europe programme