Moving to a district heating system that used a high efficiency combined heat and power system, that produces electricity and captures the waste heat, would substantially increase the heating efficiency of peoples homes. It would also substantially reduce the amount of emitted CO2. Doesn’t eliminate the use of fossil fuels, but has the potential to substantially reduce the environmental impact to something more sustainable.

This isn’t even a new idea, most homes in Russian cities are heated using district heating. At scale it’s so efficient that they don’t even bother metering the heat.

Additionally with a district heating system, geothermal, and ground source heat pumps start to make a significant amount of sense. Their both technologies the benefit significantly from very large installations.