On March 6th and 7th there will be the promised public information on district heating and combined heat and power plants.
Two days of information market and exchange in the Hochlandhalle have been announced - for what, according to the municipal utility, is "the largest climate protection project in Weilheim for decades".
Weilheim
– Stadtwerke Weilheim is entering the “age of green heat” according to the press release on the planned information market.
"The first houses, apartments and companies in Weilheim-Mitte will be connected to district heating as early as the 2023/2024 heating period."
In addition, liquid biomethane, near-surface geothermal energy and solar thermal energy would be used.
Stadtwerke Weilheim Energie GmbH (SWE) is “actively advancing the energy transition in Weilheim,” emphasizes CEO Peter Müller: “Renewable district heating, stable, safe and independent of foreign energy suppliers – this is the largest climate protection project in Weilheim for decades.”
Five "energy centers" planned in the city area
In order to one day be able to supply the whole of Weilheim with district heating, five "energy centers" are planned in the city area: the water heated there will be transported to the customers via underground pipelines.
According to the company, “a heat transfer station is installed in their houses, which uses a heat exchanger to transfer the heat from the district heating water to the water in the respective heating system”.
In addition, “green electricity” is produced in the power plants.
The district heating project starts in the city center
The energy center for "Weilheim Mitte" will be located in the planned multi-storey car park on the municipal utility site on Krumpperstrasse.
A district heating route leads from there to the community center, a second will be built in 2023/24 via Benedikt-Höck-Weg and Kaltenmoserstraße to the state building authority on Münchner Straße.
Here the power plant is planned in the northwest
Step two of the district heating project is "Weilheim North-West" - with an energy center "directly in the Weilheim sewage treatment plant", as SWE explains: "The waste heat from the sewage treatment plant can be used to generate heat.
The planned route goes via Paradeisstraße and crosses the Ammer at Merckstraße;
in this way, the town hall, among other things, is also supplied with heat.
Construction will start in 2024/25.”
Kranlöchl is the “best possible location” in the east for the public utility company
Step three is "Weilheim Nord-Ost", for which the energy center at Kranlöchl is planned.
From there, “a large part of the area between Narbonner Ring, Pütrichstraße and Obere Stadt” is to be supplied with district heating.
According to the SWE, the municipal property at Kranlöchl, used for decades by a gardening business, was rightly rated by the city as the "best possible location" for the combined heat and power plant.
The area is "perfect in size", more than a third has already been sealed and has been used commercially for more than 50 years, and it has "no direct neighbors who could be disturbed by the energy center".
Concern that another citizens' initiative could be founded
The planned buildings (a wood chip store, a boiler house and a building for the ash) would be integrated "harmoniously into the landscape", the municipal utility promises.
The heat loss through the 500 meters to the residential area is "just 0.3 percent".
And the delivery of the wood chips ("three trucks per day during the heating period") and the removal of the ash ("one truck every two weeks") mean "only slightly more traffic".
On the other hand, the alternative locations on the Narbonner Ring named by critics have "very significant disadvantages".
There are also direct residents who want to set up a citizens' initiative in the event of planning.
Müller: "If two citizens' initiatives campaign for opposite goals, district heating planning in Weilheim Nord-Ost would be put on hold for a long time."
Against this background, the municipal utilities are now going on the offensive.
Hendricks & Schwartz was commissioned to organize the information days.
"With our proven approach to approval management and acceptance communication, we contribute to a successful and accelerated process," he writes about his work on the website.
The info days
in the Hochlandhalle begin on Monday, March 6, with an information market from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
At 6.30 p.m. there will be a lecture and a presentation, followed by “the info market again for more in-depth questions”.
On Tuesday, March 7, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., there will be another information market.
