First Move

Introduction

First Move is a free web app for the first steps of a fifth-generation district heating and cooling (5GDHC) project. It helps municipalities, energy service providers and other project initiators to screen a project area and to develop a business model for a network there.

Two modules

A project in First Move has two optional modules. You can use one of them or both, and you can turn each one on or off at any time; the data of a module is kept while it is off.

  • Quick Check: a first assessment of the technical and economic potential of a 5GDHC network for a project area. You enter a few key parameters, and the Quick Check applies a predefined calculation and assessment methodology. The result is one of three levels, Promising, Further analysis required or Not promising, shown together with the main factors behind it.
  • Business Plan: a workspace to develop a business model for the network in four steps, from the opportunity to the next steps towards implementation. You write in your own words; the Business Plan calculates nothing of its own.

Both modules share the site data, such as the buildings and the energy sources, so you enter them once.

Your data stays in your browser

There is no account and no server database. Your projects are stored only in the browser you use, and First Move never receives them. Export a project to keep a copy or to move it to another browser. Data and privacy explains the details.

Where to start

  1. Open the dashboard.
  2. Start a new project with the Quick Check, the Business Plan or both, or open one of the six examples. Opening an example creates your own copy; the examples use illustrative inputs only.
  3. Or import a project file (.firstmove.json) that you exported before.

New to 5GDHC? Read What is 5GDHC? first.

Read next

  • What is 5GDHC?: the idea behind the networks, where they fit and where they do not.
  • Quick Check: every input, how the result is calculated and what it means.
  • Business Plan: the four steps, the example scenarios and the pitch-readiness checklist.
  • Data and privacy: where your projects live, export, import and deleting data.

A screening, not a feasibility study

The Quick Check gives an initial indication, not a definitive feasibility decision. Its parameters and methodology are based on simplified assumptions; actual values may vary with project-specific conditions and should be refined through further analysis. Neither the results nor these pages are engineering advice.