Project worth millions on the Kupferbach: Glonner wants to supply 100 households with inexpensive local solar heating
Created: 07/28/2022, 13:47
By: Josef Ametsbichler
A man and his open space: Entrepreneur Josef Pongratz wants to build the second solar thermal supported local heating network in southern Bavaria in the Kupferbachtal - with collectors on an area of 4000 square meters.
© Stefan Rossmann
An open space solar thermal system in Glonn is intended to supply over 100 households with local heating.
It is a project that is almost unique in Bavaria - with a very close model.
Glonn
– Josef Pongratz is standing in a golden-yellow grain field in the Kupferbachtal near Glonn and is looking into the future over the ears of corn.
In his mind's eye, dark blue rows of modules line up on an elevation in the field.
The sawmill owner based there wants to supply more than 100 households in the south of Glonn with local heat from solar energy from the field right next to the Wiesmühle natural swimming pool – from the Kupferbach settlement around Schmiedberg to the Mattenhofen settlement and the Wiesmühle down to the remote forest settlement.
"It's sustainable if I don't produce any CO2 when generating heat," he says and puts his thumbs in his gray work dungarees.
True pioneers rarely wear a suit.
Solar thermal energy and wood chips: Glonn municipality signals approval
On Tuesday, the municipality of Glonn unanimously approved Pongratz' planning application for the local heating network.
In front of him is a combination of wood chips and solar thermal energy (no photovoltaics!) from the open space, which is unique in all of southern Bavaria: also in the district, in the neighboring municipality of Moosach.
Unlike there, the sawmill owner wants to cover not just 25 percent, but around 40 percent of the heat requirement from solar thermal energy over the year.
Then around 40 percent of government funding for the investment costs in the millions beckon, he explains.
The trained sawmill foreman wants to produce the rest in his own heating plant from self-produced wood chips: "We do the entire production, storage and generation."
A sheep grazes under the solar thermal local heating system in Moosach, which went into operation in 2019.
© Stefan Rossmann
Sustainable local heating in Glonn: Entrepreneur faces bureaucratic hurdles
A feasibility study is currently underway while he works through the official hurdles.
As is well known, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) recently said about renewable energies that their expansion was “in the overriding public interest”.
Josef Pongratz (45) says: "Renewable energies have not yet reached the building law." Unlike in Austria, the bureaucracy in this country throws a spanner in the works for those who want to do something for the required energy transition, rather than clearing them away.
According to him, only around 4,000 square meters of the approximately 10,000 square meter field are suitable for the system - elsewhere the district office does not play along because it is a flood area and there is no connection to the site.
Glonns Mayor Josef Oswald (CSU) says: "The whole thing makes sense, not everyone likes the location." Greater resistance is not to be expected because of the advantages.
Exemplary project in Moosach with unbeatably low heating costs
Especially not from the Glonner neighborhood, Pongratz observed.
Even before the start of the war in Ukraine, she was "brutally hot" for a more independent heat supply without oil and gas.
In addition to several existing local heating networks in Glonn, the Moosach model should also play a role.
The local co-initiator Willi Mirus, formerly the second mayor and today the district heating officer for the community, calculates that those who connect in Moosach with (eligible) connection costs of around 10,000 euros will get a gross working price of almost unbeatable 5 cents per kilowatt hour of heating output in their house.
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For comparison: heating oil and gas are around 15 cents (highly fluctuating) and wood pellets are almost twice as expensive at around 9 cents.
"Anyone who has joined us looks more calmly at world events," says Mirus about the 76 Moosach households that have taken part so far.
"There could be more, but the pipe construction company can hardly meet the demand."
1,600 square meters of solar panels on 4,000 square meters of open space - with sheep in between
In Glonn, Josef Pongratz has teamed up with his two sons Thomas (23) and Matthias (19) and the neighboring farmer Klaus Niedermair for his project.
Two heating plants, one in the valley and one on the mountain, are designed to ensure fail-safety.
And the grass between the approximately 1,600 square meters of solar heat panels on the approximately 4,000 square meters of space is intended for the sheep to graze according to the Moosach model.
"They are super landscapers!" says Pongratz with a smile.
Climate protection now demands a banner at the Glonner Wiesmühle, where the new plant is planned.
© Stefan Rossmann
Intelligent local heating network in Glonn: Only as much heat as is needed
A technical innovation that he wants to incorporate: the intelligent local heating network.
Thanks to communication between the heating plant and buffer storage tanks in the households, only as much hot water is pumped through the location as is actually needed.
That means: smaller furnaces and lines, less power loss.
Former energy agency boss Hans Gröbmayr, whom Pongratz calls the "good spirit" of the project, is at his side as an adviser.
The "Nahwärme Wiesmühle GbR" wants to put its heating plant into operation in 2023.
You can find more current news from the district of Ebersberg at Merkur.de/Ebersberg.
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