Solar energy is an important alternative energy source that leads to sustainable development of district heating (DH) systems. The aim of this paper is to analyze optimal integration of photovoltaic thermal hybrid (PVT) technology in DH systems by covering industrial power consumption and heat demand of buildings in the Northern European climate. The article compares several different scenarios for the particular case study in order to find the optimal solar system design. The scenarios differ with the size of the installed PVT area as well as an excess power utilization setup. The hourly load and solar energy generation alignment analysis determines the total achievable solar fraction and other parameters for each scenario. The results show that it is economically beneficial to convert excess power to heat when the market price of electricity is lower than the DH heat tariff. This is done with the restriction that the heat demand is higher than solar heat generated. The higher solar fraction is obtained in scenario of maximal PVT area (3000 m(2)) installation with a power accumulation added. Solar fraction reaches 38% of total heat and power consumption. However, this scenario also has the highest costs and incomes. The calculated value of levelized costs of energy (LCOE) for all scenarios is lower than used reference costs of energy. The total avoided emissions are higher for the scenarios without power accumulation. The specific avoided CO2 emission costs show that the optimal scenario is with 2000 m(2) PVT area installed. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.