WASTE HEAT UTILISATION IN SLOVENIA: SOURCE-SINK MATCHING AND ECONOMIC SCREENING
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18690/jet.19.4.%25p.2026Keywords:
waste heat, source-sink matching, district heating, Slovenia, heat pump, economic screening, heat reuseAbstract
Waste heat can contribute to heat supply only where the source characteristics match local demand and integration costs remain acceptable. This paper develops a source-sink framework for Slovenia that combines thermal quality, recoverable capacity, temporal availability, spatial proximity, demand characteristics, infrastructure requirements and delivered-heat cost. It distinguishes theoretical, technically recoverable, and economically usable heat, and examines data centres as an emerging source with limited internal thermal demand. For Slovenia's existing data-centre stock, recoverable heat is nationally modest and relevant mainly locally; scenarios for 15 and 30 MWth systems at 3,000 equivalent full-load hours yield about 45 and 90 GWh annually. Economic screening shows that the viability improves with a higher source temperature and utilisation, shorter connections, and moderate integration costs, whereas the delivered heat may exceed 100 €/MWh under unfavourable conditions, even when the source heat is free. The results support selective site-specific assessment and early heat-reuse planning for the future energy-intensive infrastructure.
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