It doesn't just make sense in the very far north, it makes sense just about anywhere that you'd have many people living close together (i.e. even a village).
Most homes don't need to have their own electricity generators, their own sewage treatment systems, or their own water wells, they hook into utility infrastructure.
In a lot of european towns and cities, heat is also a utility you can hook into, e.g. my apartment has no heating infrastructure in it, we just get all of our heat through a pipe connected to a nearby heat reservoir that's primarily loaded with waste heat from a gas power turbine. Within the next couple years though, the heat from gas power will be supplemented with the biggest heat pump in the world though [1]
It's not just a city thing though, I have friends who live in a village of 300 people in the Alps and they also have a utility district heating system in the village.
Most homes don't need to have their own electricity generators, their own sewage treatment systems, or their own water wells, they hook into utility infrastructure.
In a lot of european towns and cities, heat is also a utility you can hook into, e.g. my apartment has no heating infrastructure in it, we just get all of our heat through a pipe connected to a nearby heat reservoir that's primarily loaded with waste heat from a gas power turbine. Within the next couple years though, the heat from gas power will be supplemented with the biggest heat pump in the world though [1]
It's not just a city thing though, I have friends who live in a village of 300 people in the Alps and they also have a utility district heating system in the village.
[1] https://www.man-es.com/company/press-releases/press-details/...