Gemona del Friuli – Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy

Overview

Gemona del Friuli is located in the centre-north of Friuli Venezia Giulia region, in a pre-alpine area at the bottom of the Tagliamento river valley. It has a population of approximately 11,000 inhabitants and is the major town of the Gemonese Mountain Community, formed by 6 municipalities in total. There are no district heating networks in the town and the heating sector is therefore fully dominated by natural gas or, in some cases, by fuel oil.

There is a high potential to retrieve biomass from the local woods that is not yet exploited, and there is the possibility to use the waste heat that now is being produced the crematorium near the cemetery. The DH network will be built near the major school center of the town, where there is also the local gym and swimming pool both open to the public.


The main objectives of ConnectHeat in the Italian demonstration site are to abandon fossil fuels and use renewable energy instead, and to do so more efficiently. In the meantime, it is planned to raise awareness of the transition and get the local actors and population involved.

Energy size

It will be installed two boilers of 400 kW each. The annual production will be about 800 MWh, depending on the waste heat retrievable from the crematory. The average power coming from the crematory will be around 400 kW, mostly in daily hours, the integration between crematory and woodchip boilers will be made with heat exchangers (2 for 400 kW power) and 3×15 m3 water storage.

Ambition, vision and expected objectives

  1. To analyse the technical and economic feasibility of the development of small biomass-based district heating, evaluating the possibility of integration of waste heat and solar thermal energy.
  2. To foster the conditions for the establishment of a local supply chain based on biomass and waste heat and to create a community energy structure highly replicable in the regional context, that can involve different public and private actors, raise social awareness about sustainability and energy efficiency issues, generates local revenues and supports circular economy. There is an ambition to make the district heating network a flagship project at the regional level.