Geothermal energy Holzkirchen: Hardly any money for grid expansion

Created: 06/07/2022, 07:02

The plan dates from 2019. Municipal utility boss Albert Götz cannot implement it because the financing is unclear.

The aim at that time was to connect the existing network (green) to the geothermal plant (red square "Geo") by building new main routes (orange).

© Gemeindewerke Holzkirchen

Since the Ukraine war, the demand for Holzkirchner geothermal energy has tripled.

However, those willing to connect will have to be patient.

Because the municipal utilities have hardly any money for the network expansion.

Holzkirchen

– According to municipal works boss Albert Götz, there are about 300 district heating connections.

If consumers had their way, far more would be connected to the network: around 100 potential customers are on the waiting list.

The municipal utilities have already given you a "rough house number" for when the connection will take place, explains Götz.

“In addition, there is a whole stack of inquiries that we have not yet processed.” Demand has gone through the roof since the Ukraine war – the number of interested parties has tripled.

Because a connection to the district heating network is a prerequisite for the purchase of geothermal energy.

This only partially feeds the district heating network: as long as the existing lines are not yet fully connected to the geothermal plant in Alte Au, the three heating plants operated with natural gas and heating oil on Batusa, on Klinikstrasse and on Rosenheimer Strasse also supply heat.

In the case of the heat island on the hospital road, the district heating comes entirely from fossil fuels - there is still no connection to the geothermal plant.

In contrast, customers who are connected to the district heating network in the Rosenheimer Strasse area only use geothermal energy.

"The network is already very well connected there," says Götz.

He compares the three heat islands to trees.

Its branches form the district heating network.

Although the branches are already linked, these links are not enough to get all the juice through.

More branches - i.e. connecting lines - are necessary.

The grid expansion therefore has two dimensions: the connection of the existing, approximately 22-kilometer-long grid with the geothermal plant and its expansion towards the customer.

Both cost a lot of money.

According to Götz, around 1800 euros per meter, i.e. 1.8 million euros per kilometer.

This does not take into account the costs of other sectors, such as the renovation of water and power lines and the expansion of broadband, which for economic reasons have to be considered when the road is already being torn open.

The focus so far has been on refinancing

Money that the municipal utilities do not have - contrary to what was originally expected: "At the beginning of the geothermal project, an annual surplus of more than one million euros was assumed, which we wanted to invest in expanding the grid," explains Götz.

“But at the moment we are only making the loan and the operating costs.” This is due to the pump failures.

If it fails, the power plant does not produce any electricity.

But one million euros a year wouldn't be enough: "To really get started, we'd need five million euros a year," says Götz.

He hopes the community will make funds available.

The prerequisite is a target definition, such as that of the Miesbach district with its climate protection concept.

"The community has to ask itself: where do we want to go?" Based on this, a financing structure must then be developed.

Mayor Christoph Schmid (CSU), who is also chairman of the supervisory board of the municipal utilities, confirms that the original calculations assumed a different level of liquidity.

But he also says: "It was always clear that in the first 20 years the focus would be on refinancing the system." After all, geothermal energy was designed as a project of the century and not as a quick answer to the current energy crisis.

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Nevertheless, he also wants to make better use of the potential of geothermal energy - and is working on new sources of financing.

It is conceivable, for example, to take out a kind of loan from those who want to join.

By increasing the construction cost subsidy that they have to bear - and in return supplying them with the heat at a lower price.

Possibilities like this would have to be examined beforehand.

However, the tight cash register does not mean that nothing is going forward: Last year, several buildings on Föchinger and Martin-Luther-Strasse were connected.

This year there will be additional connections on Eschenstraße in the direction of Föching.

Depending on the financial resources, the focus will then be on closing the gap to the Föching industrial park and on the St.-Josef-Strasse area.

"But we also have to communicate to the citizens where there is no chance at all for about 30 years," says Götz.