Peace appeal of the political pensioners

Created: 12/22/2022, 8:00 p.m

By: Nicole Kalenda

The subject of the dispute is a gravel pit in which Europe's largest underground heat storage tank was to be built.

© Dagmar Rutt

They call themselves political retirees from Planegg and they are concerned about the dispute that has broken out about the earth tank heat storage tank.

Five former municipal councilors and ex-mayor Heinrich Hofmann make an appeal to the mayors of Gräfelfing and Planegg.

Planegg

- "The tenor is: Please sit down at a table in the spirit of a Christmas peace!", says Anneliese Bradel.

Bradel represented the green group 21 (gG21) in the Planegger municipal council for 17 years, six years as the 3rd mayor.

She is one of the political retirees from Planegg, who left the municipal council after the local elections in 2020 and have since met regularly every four to six weeks for a regulars' table.

Herbert Stepp is also one of them, 18 years for the gG21 in the municipal council, and Heinrich Hofmann (SPD), mayor from December 2014 to April 2020, as well as Werner Strobl (gG21), Monika Schulz (SPD) and Peter Weber (SPD).

Planegger political retirees are concerned about the dispute over the ground pool heat storage system

When they see each other, usually in the Bräustüberl, they talk about politics.

Because even if they have stepped down to the second row, the development of Planegg and the Würmtal is important to them.

This was most recently the case at the beginning of December.

At that time, according to Hofmann, they decided to make a public statement about the ground pool heat storage project in Martinsrieder Feld.

"We saw that something could possibly go wrong."

A statement was drafted, but events unfolded.

Bernhard Glück Kies-Sand-Hartsteinsplitt GmbH, which had mined 700,000 tons of gravel on the 5.84 hectare area between Martinsried and Graefelfing by autumn 2020, announced that it would continue backfilling from January.

This was interrupted for a year and a half to give the vision of Europe's largest ground-based heat storage tank in the gravel pit room to mature.

Glück Managing Director Markus Wahl argued, among other things, that penalties threatened due to a private contract with the municipality of Planegg should the company not meet its backfill obligations.

Planegger Politrenter appeal to the mayors of Gräfelfing and Planegg

Gräfelfing's Mayor Peter Köstler explained: "The lack of interest on the part of the Planegg community in this project was one of the reasons for the failure." and made responsible for the end of the earth basin heat storage.

He said in the Merkur conversation: "It stinks that we are always put forward as a preventer." He sees the responsibility at Gräfelfing and the Glück company.

According to Bradel, the political retirees are now asking “for a round table” at which, in addition to the mayors, representatives of the district office that issued the filling notice and the company Glück, as well as experts, are taking part.

Among other things, these are intended to explain the topic of waste heat from the large data center planned by the Max Planck Society in Martinsried and what that could mean for the ground pool heat storage system, in which water absorbs excess heat in order to release it again when required, for example from geothermal energy or just the data center.

Bradel: "We need the ground pool heat storage to become carbon neutral."

The point of contention is a gravel pit in which the earth tank heat storage tank was to be built

Regarding the harsh-toned position paper of the Würmtal-Nord heat network initiative group, which consists of Gräfelfingen Greens and members of the gG21 in Planegg, she says: “These are all very active people who are highly frustrated.

This can be construed as clumsiness.

They pulled out all the stops at the last minute.” And further: “We also had disputes, but we always found our way back to specialist politics.”