ThinkGeoEnergy – Geothermal Energy News

Planning application approved for Geretsried geothermal plant, Germany

The Geretstried geothermal project, now planned to be developed using a closed-loop system approach by Canadian Eavor Technologies has received required permits to proceed.

As reported locally, after two unsuccessful drilling campaigns – we reported on it in 2013 and 2017 for the geothermal project in Geretstried in Bavaria, Germany, city councillors have now approved the planning permit for the new approach.

Hopefully the third attempt will succeed in extracting the heat from the geothermal resources below the surface. In any case, the city of Geretsried does not want to put any obstacles in the way of the project: the building committee of the city council unanimously cleared the way for a geothermal power plant in Gelting on Tuesday. The facility is being built in the forest near the Breitenbach estate, 2.5 kilometers south of Gelting and 3.5 kilometers west of Geretsried.

The planned power plant is located midway between the two drilling sites. The building permit also applies to the air coolers, the largest building on the site with a circumference of 80 by 40 meters and a height of 14 meters, as well as for a switchgear building. Second Mayor Gerhard Meinl (CSU), who chaired the meeting on his behalf, was full of praise for the project – and for the courage of the investors, Enex GmbH, which has teamed up with the Canadian start-up Eavor: “Respect for that even after the first attempts at drilling failed, they continue and put tens of millions into this.”

Drilling has already been carried out twice at Gelting, but without success. A new technique is to be used in the future drilling test. It should no longer matter whether there is enough hot water bubbling at depth. To put it simply, the whole thing works like a kind of giant underfloor heating system. Cold water is fed in at one point, heated deep down thanks to the hot rock, and fed back up at the other point. You don’t even need a pump because hot water is lighter and rises almost by itself. The first of the pipeline systems at a depth of 4500 meters is to be built this year, three more by 2024. The power plant is being built to make geothermal heat usable and to supply the city accordingly. everything goes according to plan.

However, the approval procedures for geothermal energy are complex and time-consuming. While the power plant is subject to the municipal building permit, the mining authority has to give its blessing for the underground water pipes. This process is also in the hot phase.

Source: Sueddeutsche Zeitung

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