New combined heat and power plant on the outskirts of Weilheim: City Hall goes on the offensive

Created: 09/27/2022, 10:00 am

By: Magnus Reitinger

This is where the "Kranlöchl energy center" is to be built: to the east (r.) the city forest borders the area, on the left part of the Dietlhofer lake can be seen.

Below the avenue Kranlöchl, on the right the dirt road to the tennis court.

© Stadtwerke

Due to "considerable resistance" from citizens, the city goes on the offensive for the planned thermal power station at Kranlöchl.

This is "the largest and most important climate protection project in Weilheim," according to the town hall.

Weilheim

- There is a large majority in the city council for the construction of a combined heat and power plant between the tennis court and Dietlhofer See - as an essential component for the development of a district heating network in Weilheim.

However, there was “considerable resistance” from the citizenry recently, said Mayor Markus Loth (BfW) at the most recent building committee meeting.

Last week he received around 300 protest signatures (see below).

There is also "a lot of ignorance", stated the head of the town hall and concluded: "You have to straighten out a few things."

Three quarters of the heat from wood

Stadtwerke boss Peter Müller was invited to the committee to clarify.

The municipal company's Energie GmbH wants to set up a central heating system on the municipal property on Kranlöchl, which is currently leased to a horticultural company.

Three quarters of this would come from wood, a quarter from near-surface geothermal energy, solar thermal energy and biomethane, explained Müller.

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The board of directors emphasized that Weilheim’s heat requirements could be covered solely from the wood in the city forest, which the municipal utility company “never claimed”: If all the wood felled in the city forest was processed into wood chips, “in the final phase, perhaps 15 percent of the energy required in the Kranlöchl power station could be used Wood chips" come from this, the rest would come from other suppliers in the area.

This is specifically planned at the Kranlochl:

Müller breaks down the heat generators planned for the Kranlöchl cogeneration plant as follows:

- two large heat pumps, each with a thermal output of 2 megawatts;

- Two wood furnaces for wood chips fresh from the forest with approx. 2 and 4 MW rated output;

- Two liquid biomethane combined heat and power plants, each with 2.6 MW thermal output and 2.5 MW electrical output - operation only in the winter months to compensate for missing photovoltaic power in the local power grid;

- a peak load/redundancy boiler with liquid biomethane with a thermal output of approx. 5 MW - "Operation only on very cold days, contribution to the total heat requirement in the district heating network only approx. three percent".

The biomethane - according to Müller a climate-neutral fuel - should come from Geretsried.

Oil and natural gas would not be used.

Location on Narbonner Ring would be “too close to residential development”

According to Müller, the planned location at Kranlöchl "slowly developed after a possible location directly on the Narbonner Ring was discussed", for example at the soccer field or at the used glass containers.

"But that's all too close to the residential development," says the Stadtwerke boss, while the area at Kranlöchl is far enough away and already developed - and the power plant is "as inconspicuous as possible" in the slope.

The building heights and also the height of the exhaust air chimney (22 meters above the ground) would remain below the treetops of the forest to the east.

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Stadtwerke boss makes it clear: “No obligation to connect”

In order to protect the trees along the avenue, the necessary district heating lines are to be laid in the middle under the asphalt road in Kranlöchl.

In a good ten years, there will be "certainly more" thermal power stations in Weilheim, stated Müller.

Because of the high heat demand in the northern part of the city, also with various new building projects, this is a good place to start.

According to Müller, there will be no “compulsory connection”: “Everyone is free to choose which heating system they want to use.

The question is simple, which fuel do you want to use – gas is certainly not going to get cheaper.”

Discussion with the government: The sticking point is the connection requirement

The general possibility of building this energy center is currently being examined by the technical authorities as part of the change in the land use plan.

The sticking point is the connection requirement;

Whether this can be overcome will be clarified on October 13 with the government of Upper Bavaria.

If this decides positively, the citizens would soon be informed comprehensively about the project by the municipal utilities, promised Müller.

For him it is “by far the largest climate protection project in Weilheim”.

The power plant must be “realized as soon as possible”.

This was confirmed by climate protection manager Katharina Segerer in view of the fact that the city area “currently still has 90 percent fossil heat supply”.

Representatives of all factions assured that they fully supported the project.

The combined heat and power plant had to be "implemented as soon as possible", as it was said, there was no better location for it.

Nevertheless, citizens have “a right to information”.

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In the city council meeting on Thursday, September 29th, the draft development plan for the “Kranlöchl energy center” is again a topic.

The public session begins at 6:30 p.m. in Weilheim town hall (large meeting room).

In addition, among other things, the presentation of the report for a “building land decision” on value skimming is on the agenda.

Info: www.weilheim.de

Over 300 signatures against the location of the thermal power station at Kranlöchl

Eva Maria Engel handed over protest lists signed by around 300 citizens last week in the town hall.

As reported, the woman from Weilheim had started an action to preserve the "species-rich biotope on the Kranlöchl site".

The lovingly planted area, for many walkers a "welcome to see local recreation idyll", is the wrong location for the planned thermal power station.

Mayor Markus Loth "registered" the lists - for which she will submit another 32 signatures later," reports Engel of the handover.

The head of the town hall, who was added later, received her open letter "put on the desk".

In it, the initiator deals with statements that Loth made a few days earlier in a personal conversation.

Among other things, she wonders “how long and extensive the construction period” of the power plant will be and “how the 40-ton trucks that make deliveries every day will get to the back there and back again,” Engel said in the letter.

With a total of four planned combined heat and power plants, she asks herself "where exactly and from where all the wood should come in the long term".

And since many of those she interviewed simply knew nothing about the plans, she wonders