The houses contribute significantly to the total energy consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases. In Italy, buildings energy consumption represented 40% of final energy consumption in 2010. Upgrading the energy efficiency of existing buildings could give a strong boost to the reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
Although now many policies at Community and national level push for energy upgrading the existing housing stock, the sector continues to be sluggish. On closer inspection, in the Italian cities the energy efficiency strategies focus more on the side of the production of thermal energy. The utilities are adopting district heating to streamline its heat production and distribution systems. This strategy, supported by the local government, seems to be functional to consolidate the existing techno-institutional regime, where energy production is produced by fossil fuels and waste. District heating is a device capable of improving energy efficiency of thermal power plants and incinerators, thanks to the exploitation of waste heat of power plants. The paper aims to investigate the expansion of district heating networks, starting from a research hypothesis: that the strategy of the utilities to invest heavily district heating is an obstacle to large-scale deployment of energy saving measures. District heating seems to create an effect of technological lock-in with respect to the ability to implement energy retrofit interventions.
