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Local developer holds Citizens’ Council for Breisgau geothermal project

Local developer holds Citizens’ Council for Breisgau geothermal project Freiburg im Breisgau/ Germany (source: flickr/ geoterranaute, creative commons)
Carlo Cariaga 1 Apr 2022

Through a public expert hearing, local developer badenova has helped address the concerns of the citizens close to the Breisgau geothermal heating project in Germany.

badenovaWÄRMEPLUS, a subsidiary of local energy supplied badenova, recently held a second public expert hearing for a citizens’ council concerning a planned geothermal heating project in Breisgau, Germany. We had previously reported on the formation of the citizens’ council in Breisgau, as well as the conduct of seismic measurements in the area.

The citizens’ council, consisting of randomly selected citizens from the concerned municipalities, submitted more than 30 questions for the second expert hearing. There are about 38 participants either in attendance or connected digitally who followed the discussions. A panel of technical experts, as well as project managers at badenovaWÄRMEPLUS, were available to available to answer questions from participants.

Klaus Preiser, technical director of badenovaWÄRMEPLUS, emphasized the role of geothermal energy in the energy transition. “In this geopolitical situation, we have to find answers to the question: How do we get away from fossil fuels?” he commented.

There was a detailed expert debate concerning liability. Axel Brasse from the State Office for Geology, Raw Materials and Mining explained that any potential victims will be well-protected by the mining law.

There was great interest in the financial opportunities from the project. As badenova was a municipal company, its profits will be distributed to the towns and communities involved. Project Managers Klaus Preiser and Simon Laub said that the project can easily serve a radius of 25 kilometers if they find a resource of at least 100 degrees Celsius. However, heating is still a competitive market and customers will only switch to geothermal energy if they find that it is better in terms of cost, reliability, convenience, or emission levels.

More than two-thirds of the citizens’ council felt very well informed after the second expert heating and praised how the hydrothermal process was explained. The participation of Hans Rose, chairman of the citizens’ initiative against deep geothermal energy in the southern Upper Rhine Graben eV, also helped in addressing the concerns of the citizens. Other risk factors such as seismicity and effects on water quality and supply were also discussed.

Source: badenova