IAT discussion papers

Urban manufacturing is increasingly discussed as a contributor to sustainable urban development,
particularly through its potential to supply industrial waste heat for district heating networks (DHN).
This paper examines whether urban manufacturing in Germany can provide a meaningful source of
waste heat for residential heating. Drawing on novel data from the Plattform für Abwärme (PfA), which
reports over 19,000 industrial processes across 2,668 sites, we analyse the spatial distribution, sectoral
composition, and residential proximity of waste heat sources. After filtering for relevant sites (≥50 °C,
≥12 h daily availability), we assess their distribution across urban, suburban, and rural contexts and
conduct a spatial analysis for four federal states—Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Lower Saxony, and
North Rhine-Westphalia. Our results show that manufacturing accounts for 62% of all reported waste
heat sources, with 51% located in towns and suburbs and only 22% in densely populated cities. Notably,
82% of identified sites in the four states lie within 500 metres of residential areas, indicating substantial
potential for DHN integration. However, marked regional differences in sectoral composition
demonstrate that opportunities are uneven and strongly context dependent. We conclude that
industrial waste heat offers a significant but supplementary contribution to Germany’s heating
transition. Realising this potential will require overcoming technical, governance, and socio-economic
barriers, while recognising that defossilisation and sectoral transformation may alter future
availability.