It was a departure into the unknown.
Geothermie Unterhaching is now celebrating its 20th birthday.
Reason enough to think about the future of this energy production.
Unterhaching
– It was a departure into the unknown.
Would the assumed hot water, slumbering 3,500 meters below the earth's surface, actually bubble up in sufficient quantities?
Despite technical uncertainties and financial risks, the municipality of Unterhaching started its geothermal project in 2002 and is one of the pioneers in this sector of modern energy generation.
"We are celebrating two decades of courage, determination and perseverance," said City Hall spokesman Simon Hötzl, who moderated a discussion event on the occasion of the anniversary.
His conclusion in the age of the oil and gas crisis: "We are sitting on a treasure with geothermal energy in Unterhaching - and it is being raised."
Keynote speech by Professor Harald Lesch
The Unterhaching geothermal energy plant with its CO2-free district heating is "the right bang" as a contribution to climate protection, said Professor Harald Lesch in a keynote speech: "This is how climate change works!" In general, however, the astrophysicist at the LMU painted a pretty bleak picture.
"The white ice of the North Pole is turning into dark water," and the fact that the permafrost is now thawing is a "double domino effect," says the professor: "Several tipping points overturn each other.
We are experiencing a methane explosion in slow motion, our planet is becoming a Jurassic Park experiment.” It is still possible “to turn things around, the next ten years are crucial”.
If climate change doesn't succeed, "the earth will get so hot that we won't even be able to regulate our body temperature with our sweating".
Physicists would have given corresponding warnings as early as the 19th century.
pronounced century.
The 62-year-old admitted self-critically: "My generation screwed it up."
Knapek scolds the oil and gas lobby
Former mayor Erwin Knapek, years ago the driving force behind the Unterhaching geothermal energy system, grumbled about "all the nonsense of selling oil and gas".
There was already a first geothermal heating plant in Paris in 1978, "but nothing happened here, the state preferred to subsidize the climate crisis".
His impression: "We're playing on an uphill slope." Two 18-year-olds from Unterhaching saw it the same way - they had obtained detailed information from a local climate workshop.
“There is great potential in geothermal energy, but it receives too little attention in federal and state politics.
The pace could be faster,” said Xaver Egert.
Clara Born said she "cannot remember a time before geothermal energy - but outside of Unterhaching this heat resource is supported far too little".
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Discussing the future of geothermal energy: (from left) 18-year-old Unterhachinger Xaver Egert and Clara Born, Professor Harald Lesch, former mayor Erwin Knapek and moderator Simon Hötzl
© Alexander Petek
Municipalization instead of nationalization
Erwin Knapek is shocked at the speed at which renewable energies are being expanded.
“Politicians have not yet recognized the urgency.
Without geothermal energy, which – unlike wind power and solar energy – is always available regardless of the weather, there will be no progress in climate change,” said the doctor of physics.
"It would take around 500,000 jobs in the field of geothermal energy nationwide by 2025." Professor Lesch agreed: "We have the alternatives, but we are not implementing them - this madness must end." Knapek pleads for the operation and expansion of district heating, following the Unterhachinger example , "for municipalization instead of nationalization".
Close cooperation with Grünwald
In order to ensure mutual security of supply, Geothermie Unterhaching and Erdwärme Grünwald (EWG) joined forces in 2012 to form a district heating network.
"This cooperation is a pearl of energy supply, a model project for the whole of Germany," said EWG Managing Director Andreas Lederle.
"We can do it." That's why, added his Unterhachinger colleague Wolfgang Geisinger, "we get visitors from all over Germany who are interested, and everyone encourages us on our difficult path in the competition with subsidized gas: keep it up!"