One example to view at many different German locations: Neighbour Heating
By “neighbour heating” is understood a farm-scale boiler that in addition to supplying heating to the farm also supplies heating to one
or several neighbours.
The difference between an actual district heating plant and a neighbour heating plant larger than 250 kW is first and foremost the size and the
type of ownership.
A district heating plant is typically larger than 1 MW and organised in the form of a private limited liability company (A.m.b.a.) , or in the form of a publicly owned company where the plant is not liable to pay tax subject to the condition that the heat can be supplied to anyone living in the area.
The relatively few neighbour heating plants smaller than 1 MW - are typically owned by the farmer or perhaps established in the form of a (partnership with one or two partners.