An interesting analysis of the 4^th/5^th generation district heating and cooling systems has been published by Shuai Yao, Jianzhong Wu and Meysam Qadrdan of Cardiff University (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032124004556). This article makes, on basis of a large range of publications on the 4^th and 5^th generation district heating and cooling networks, a comparison of the current state of the art. The authors conclude that the “results show that while 5GDHCS is a promising technology to decarbonize domestic heating and to promote sector coupling between electric power and district heating systems, it is still in the early stage of development, marked by substantial research gaps in technical, policy, regulatory, and market aspects”.

XChains adheres to this conclusion but considers that the 5GDHC commercialisation is maybe not such “a long way ahead” as the authors consider. Besides the fact that the actual implementation might already be more advanced than the referenced publications indicate, Xchains considers that there are two reasons why its commercialisation might not be a long way ahead.

First, the 5^th generation District Heating and Cooling systems can in contrast to earlier generations, start with a small network and expand in line with a growing user adoption of this collective heating and cooling network. Second, the elimination a large investment in one central heating source together with potentially lower investments in the initial network due to the use of its lower temperatures and much more decentralised flows, should make 5GDHC systems a less risky investment than a traditionally centrally oriented network with higher temperatures. 

In other words, the combination of these two points provide an attractive framework for investors to get involved even if they have to deal with the fact that initially the performance of a 5GDHC system might not be as high than might be indicated in theory.  With this in mind has XChains been created well knowing that the main challenge is that it has to overcome the policy and regulatory requirements that are often still very much oriented towards the classical approach of a large network with a central heating source.