Plans for extension of geothermal district heating across several municipalities in Bavaria
Former Jesuit college, Ebersberg/ Bavaria (source: flickr/ János Korom, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
10 Dec 2020
Five local municipalitie near Munich, Germany are exploring the possibility to collectively connect to a geothermal district heating system that would allow them to save cost in decarbonising their heating networks.
New district heating piping is to deliver geothermal heat from the location of the wells in Vaterstetten in the southwest of Munich to Ebersberg and also to supply three other municipalities on the way, according to reporting by local news outlet Merkur.
So far this is only a plan and still is though unclear for this intermunicipal geothermal project. There is so far neither reliable information about costs nor about the set location of the district heating pipeline.
The general idea is that the five neighbouring municipalities and other interested municipalities, such as the neighboring Grasbrunn in the Munich district, share the costs. This would reduce the burden and the risk for the individual municipalities. In addition, District Administrator Niedergesäß is hoping for funding from the Bavarian “Geothermal Master Plan”, which Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger (FW) announced last year at the Geothermie.Bayern practice forum.
In Vaterstetten there is already a good basis with data available due to a previous project planning. In the subsurface, in the water-bearing layer of the Upper Jurassic, deep water with a temperature of 95 to 99 degrees Celsius is suspected. This would be ideal for district heating and according to the experts, the heat loss on the long line is negligible, as reported.
The district and the energy agency are on board
“That would be a big step forward for the energy transition in the district,” Niedergesäß told Merkur. In addition to the five municipalities, the district also wants to get involved, as does the Ebersberg-Munich energy agency. Geothermal energy could supply around 70,000 people in the district with CO2-free heat.
Treasury decision in Vaterstetten
On Thursday, December 10th, the topic will be on the agenda in the Vaterstetten municipal council to vote on a fundamental decision. The use of geothermal energy has been discussed in the community for over 20 years. Authors of a new study now recommend “pushing ahead with the construction of a geothermal generation plant” with a location on the A99 south of the motorway service station.
There have already been several attempts to implement the project together with the neighbouring communities in order to replace the previous gas and oil supply with geothermal local heating. But the project could not be implemented even with an investor.
The proponents of geothermal energy in the community did not give up, however. In September a year ago it was decided to re-examine the possible use of geothermal energy. The district administrator can also be enthusiastic about this idea, as Merkur reports. The newspaper also says that the five mayors were also interested and open-minded.
Source: Merkur via our German partner site TiefeGeothermie
