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Biogas plant from the very beginning - here the heating costs are almost stable

2022-07-06T10:12:20.770Z


Biogas plant from the very beginning - here the heating costs are almost stable Created: 07/06/2022Updated: 07/06/2022 12:07 p.m By: Andreas Daschner District heating for around 100 houses in Luttenwang is provided by the biogas plant of Manfred Scherer (left) and Josef Schmid. © Andreas Daschner Germany groans under increased energy prices. The small village of Luttenwang shows how things can


Biogas plant from the very beginning - here the heating costs are almost stable

Created: 07/06/2022Updated: 07/06/2022 12:07 p.m

By: Andreas Daschner

District heating for around 100 houses in Luttenwang is provided by the biogas plant of Manfred Scherer (left) and Josef Schmid.

© Andreas Daschner

Germany groans under increased energy prices.

The small village of Luttenwang shows how things can be done differently.

The heating costs there are almost stable for the majority of the residents – thanks to the biogas plant that Josef Schmid and Manfred Scherer built there 15 years ago.

Luttenwang

– Around 100 houses in the Adelshofen district receive district heating.

That's about three quarters of the Luttenwanger.

About half is supplied by the biogas plant.

The other half gets its heat from a wood chip heating system at Gasthof Frietinger.

(

By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular

FFB newsletter.)

"Biogas has always interested me," says Josef Schmid, who took over the farm from his parents in 1995.

After a training trip, he toyed with the idea of ​​building a dry fermentation plant around the turn of the millennium.

"But the requirements were so high at the time that the system could not have been operated economically."

But with the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) in 2004, wet fermentation suddenly became economical.

The starting signal for the biogas plant in Luttenwang.

Schmid got his brother-in-law Manfred Scherer on board and got involved in the planning.

The complex can hardly be seen - instead the church 

Biogas is produced by fermenting liquid manure and plants.

In Luttenwang, around 35 percent liquid manure and corn and around 30 percent grass are used.

"We have been working with around 20 farms from the region since it went into operation," says operator Josef Schmid.


These deliver material from Luttenwang, Adelshofen, Steinbach, Hörbach, Jesenwang and Hattenhofen.

"The short transport routes are good for the CO2 balance," says Schmid.

Biogas itself is CO2-neutral anyway.

"Although carbon dioxide is produced during fermentation, it was bound by the plants the year before."


A special feature in Luttenwang: while other biogas plants are often visible from afar due to their large tanks, Schmid has installed all of his tanks underground - because during construction at the time it was required that the line of sight to the Luttenwang church must be maintained.

And you can hardly see the rest of the complex from the outside.

At least in summer, specially sown flowering areas hide the view of the pipes that run between the containers.

After a lengthy approval phase - the plant was initially quite controversial - construction could begin in April 2006.

"We then went into operation in November," says Schmid.

At that time still with an output of 180 kW.

The facility has now been expanded three times.

The power: 1160 kW.

Schmid describes the fact that the biogas plant, together with the wood chip heating system at Frietinger, supplies between 75 and 80 percent of the residents of Luttenwang with heat as a “good number” – especially in view of the current political situation.

The district heating supply in the village is the result of a regulars' table of the men's choir.

In 2009 there was a discussion about how to use the waste heat from the plant.

Under the direction of Hans Bauer, formerly head of the building authority in Mammendorf, 18 people from Luttenwang joined together to form a company that set up the network for district heating.

The company around the chairman Andreas Kische is also celebrating an anniversary: ​​Exactly ten years ago, in 2012, the first construction phase of the pipeline network was built.

In two more stages, in 2015 and 2019, it grew to its current size.

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However, the system, which is largely CO2-neutral, does not just supply heat.

"We also feed around 4.5 million kWh of electricity into the public grid every year," says Schmid.

"Theoretically, we could use it to supply a place like Mammendorf." The electricity is generated by three combined heat and power plants.

Schmid and Scherer feed everything that goes beyond their own consumption into the network of the Brucker Stadtwerke.

Today Schmid is more convinced than ever that he took the right step 15 years ago.

"Biogas is a regional and reliable source of energy," he says.

And it could fill the gap for other renewable energies.

"Wind turbines only turn when it's windy, photovoltaics only supply electricity when the sun is shining."

The heat price is also not subject to the very large fluctuations.

"Apart from a minimal increase, we have remained stable with the price and want to keep it that way," says Schmid.

His balance sheet from 15 years of biogas plant: "If we look at the supplied households, the suppliers, my company with the employees and the associated families, today around 300 people benefit from the plant."

Big farm festival

15 years of biogas plant and ten years of district heating in Luttenwang will be celebrated on Sunday, July 10th, from 10 a.m. with a farm festival at the plant.

After the official part, there is the opportunity in the afternoon to visit the facility and an agricultural engineering exhibition.

You can find more current news from the district of Fürstenfeldbruck at Merkur.de/Fürstenfeldbruck.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-07-06

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