ICLEI Member Zagreb (Croatia) has been faced with two major challenges. First, the city is combatting the coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world. Second, on 22 March, an earthquake hit and caused extensive damage to its city centre.

The earthquake destroyed chimneys, which then damaged parts of roofs and facades. In response, gas had to be switched off in large swaths of the city centre, thereby disabling heating and making buildings uninhabitable.

The Power Engineering and Energy Management Chair at the University of Zagreb (UNIZAG FSB) and the North-West Croatia Regional Energy Agency (REGEA) are part of the KeepWarm project – in which ICLEI Europe is a partner – working to improve and modernise “District Heating Systems” in Croatia and across Central and Eastern Europe.

In its strategy for heating and cooling, the EU has recognised that district heating systems are the optimal technical solution for densely populated urban areas, as they can be easily decarbonised using waste heat, geothermal and solar energy. In addition, and in light of the challenges Zagreb is currently facing, UNIZAG FSB and REGEA point out that district heating systems can be more resilient to acute shocks like earthquakes, as seen by how handily the recent Zagreb earthquake destroyed chimneys.

Zagreb now has an opportunity to rebuild and reconstruct following a new path. UNIZAG FSB and REGEA argue that the city should respond to by investing in better and more resilient energy solutions.

UNIZAG FSB and REGEA call for Croatia and Zagreb to define a new common concept to reconstruct the area damaged by the earthquake – namely, one that holds long-term sustainability and resilience at its core. They call for city to switch to district heating that makes use of their location within large geothermal energy sites that can provide renewable heat for now and the future.

Overall, their proposal stands to bring high-quality heating systems to the city centre of Zagreb, based on domestic energy sources and reducing dependence on energy imports.

For more information, read the proposal and original article here.