RODEO

Accelerating the expansion of district heating networks to the residential sector.

About the project

The RODEO (Rolling Out DHC Extensively to Home Owners) project, supported through the Interreg North-West Europe programme, aims to expand district heating and cooling (DHC) networks to include the residential sector. By implementing pilot projects in cities like Dublin, Oostende, Dunkerque and Assen, RODEO supports a smart and fair energy transition, making sustainable heating accessible to more households.

Along with South Dublin County Council, RODEO has nine other partners from Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Ireland: City of Ostend (BE), Autonomous Agency Ostend (BE), Municipality of Asse (NL), Great Dunkirk (FR), Public Housing Office of the Nord department – Partenord Habitat (FR), Codema – Dublin’s Energy Agency (IE), Exceedence Ltd. (IE), Hanze University of Applied Sciences (NL) and Endeavour (BE). 

These partners will be cooperating from 2025 – 2028. 

RODEO is co-funded by the European Union; the total project budget is €5,134,551, just over €3 million of which comes from EU funding.

Objectives

District Heating and Cooling (DHC) is a major tool for the energy transition of city neighbourhoods, featuring prominently in many local climate plans. Developing grids is an economical challenge. RODEO aims to introduce a more participative business model that rebalances the costs, benefits and risks of developing DHC. The model will be validated in four pilot cities that are developing their own DHC systems. 

The project’s objectives align with the Interreg North-West Europe programme priority ‘Smart and just energy transition’ and more specifically ‘Promoting energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions’. 

Project aims

Barriers to roll out extensively-branched district heating and cooling grids in Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and France will be broken down by:

• A transnationally-developed replicable financial architecture
• Guidelines for facilitating engagement of household consumers
• Stakeholder training

Further information

For further information on the RODEO project, funded by the Interreg North-West Europe programme, visit https://rodeo.nweurope.eu/