Local chamber of commerce pushes for geothermal in Hamburg, Germany
City view of Hamburg at the harbour, Germany (source: flickr/ 146128593@N04, public domain)
Alexander Richter
4 Nov 2019
The local Chamber of Commerce of the city of Hamburg in Germany is pushing the local council to support exploring geothermal energy for the future heating supply of the city.
The Hamburg Chamber of Commerce wants to ensure that the Senate more promotes geothermal energy – the use of geothermal energy – in the Hanseatic city, so an article in German newspaper Die Welt this morning.
“Without geothermal energy, a future supply of district heating will not work largely or even completely on the basis of renewable energies and on the basis of waste heat in Hamburg,” says Matthias Ederhof, member of the Energy Committee of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce and CEO of EnergieNetz Hamburg. “And before valuable renewable electricity is used in the future directly or indirectly via hydrogen production for heat applications, the entire deep geothermal and waste heat potential in the city of Hamburg should be used consistently.”
In southern Germany, geothermal energy has already been exploited in a number of projects for several years. Munich, for example, is currently expanding its infrastructure for this purpose on urban terrain. There is also potential for this technology in northern Germany. The municipal company Hamburg Energie has prepared a pilot project in Wilhelmsburg, which is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics as part of the so-called real laboratories for the energy transition. A new district heating system around the energy bunker in Wilhelmsburg could supply up to 70,000 inhabitants with building heat from geothermal energy in the long term. “We are very happy that we can get federal funding for our geothermal project in Wilhelmsburg. This will enable us to set a milestone for the use of geothermal energy in northern Germany, “says Thomas-Tim Sävecke, Head of Production / Contracting at Hamburg Energie. “We could start immediately with the work in Wilhelmsburg. Since there is nothing new to check, we can only deliver new insights with a real hole. ”
However, it is still unclear how the two required holes can be financially secured, which will cost around 20 million euros. “Hamburg Energie needs financial backing from the city of Hamburg for the geothermal project in Wilhelmsburg – the Senate should provide binding support for the project,” says Matthias Ederhof. “A major new geothermal project for 80,000 residential units in Munich is currently being implemented with municipal backing. That should be possible in Hamburg too. ”
Source: Die Welt
