Christchurch looking for assistance on district heating after earthquake

By Miriam Eisermann on 13 May 2011

The recent earthquake that hit our member city Christchurch, in New Zealand, has destroyed large parts of the city. But it also represents the unique opportunity to rebuild the new central city in a more energy efficient way, based on renewable energy. The Christchurch City Council is now looking for an expert (or a team of experts) that could come and support the development and promotion of a district heating concept. This would greatly help establish the concept in minds of politicians, city planners and investors. Who can bring his knowledge in?

District heating does not exist in New Zealand - for historical, climatic, psychological and other reasons. However, the idea may get through now. If successful, it would be a major achievement in making Christchurch an energy-efficient city.

The Christchurch City Council and the Local Energy Agency (the first of its kind in New Zealand!) are now arranging a feasibility study of the district heating system in central city. It will be done by local engineers. Our partner in Christchurch is hoping that they could get the involvement of a European expert in this study.

Christchurch is in a devastated state. The central business district is substantially ruined. Thousands of houses in residential areas were destroyed, some areas will be abandoned forever. The damage is estimated at €16 billion.

For the moment the city can not commission professional services of such an overseas expert (as they would have done under normal circumstances). That is because of acute political sensitivity of the situation: many people lost their homes and many people still can not use some of their commodities, so the citizens would not appreciate the City Council paying for someone’s trip to New Zealand and they would not understand the benefits of such a trip.

If you are expert in district heating and ready to offer your know-how to Christchurch in a "rescue mission", please contact:

• Leonid Itskovich, energy manager at the Christchurch City Council, Leonid.Itskovich[at]ccc.govt.nz.

Have a look at Christchurch’s case studies on-line to see that the city is far from being a newcomer in sustainable energy matters!


Copyright : WordPress, AFP

   RSS Feed