Status: 16.01.2024, 18:00 PM
By: Bernhard Jepsen
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Polling has taken a first step towards local heating supply. © Stadtwerke Bad Tölz
Under the direction of Martin Echtler, a village heating system is currently being built in Oderding (we reported). The project developer also wants to build a local heating network in Polling – even larger and with significantly more customers. The municipal council has now voted in favour of concluding a licensing agreement – but not unanimously.
Polling – "Everything is going great. Two-thirds of the pipes have been laid," Martin Echtler reported to the Pollingen municipal council on the status of the village heating in the Oderding district. But that's why the Oberhausen-based heat network operator did not speak to the committee.
Plans have been around for some time
It was about another, even bigger project: "I would be happy if I could also build a village heating system in Polling." Corresponding plans for the monastery village have been in place for some time. In 2022, there was a comprehensive citizen survey, and several information events followed last year. The conclusion: There is a great deal of interest in a village heating system in Polling. According to Mayor Martin Pape (CSU), there are currently "well over 200 interested parties" on the list.
Martin Echtler is now the only remaining candidate as a possible operator of a village heating system. One applicant has already dropped out of the monastery on his own, another would have wanted to supply only a small part of Polling with heat – namely only the quarters around the monastery. Echtler, on the other hand, would cover a large part of the core village.
The municipal council now had to give its consent for a permit agreement to be negotiated with Echtler. "This means that no decision has yet been made that the heating system will actually be built," Pape stressed before the vote. For Echtler, however, the decision was nevertheless important in order to be able to submit funding applications as a potential operator within the validity periods. "It's a signal to him. If we don't make a decision today, then the village heating in Polling is dead for 2024," said Pape. In the end, the municipal council voted by a large majority to conclude a permit agreement. The two dissenting votes came from Robert Erhard (UWPEO) and Stefan Loy (WGP). In the debate, the latter had addressed the potential operator with a tough announcement: "I'll tell you quite honestly, Mr. Echtler, I don't trust you to connect 200 people in Polling to a village heating system."
There are also critical voices
Loy referred to the sums that each individual household has to raise privately for the connection to the village heating system, and he raised liability concerns about Echtler's company construct. For Loy, there is "only one right solution" when it comes to "village heating in Polling": "It only works if the municipality holds the project in its hands." But the mayor promptly objected to this: the municipality was not allowed to engage in commercial activity at all.
Somewhat softer, but also critical, tones came from Robert Erhard: "I trust Martin to do it". But: "Polling is a different ball game than Oderding. I'm skeptical and vote against it because I want to protect you," Erhard said in the direction of Echtler.
Markus Pawlowski also expressed concerns: "I consider the company form as a sole proprietor to be unfortunate – also in the operator's own interest," explained the WGP councillor. For the time being, however, the decision was only about creating the legal basis for funding – and so Pawlowski voted to conclude the licensing agreement.
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"Once the heating network has been paid off and depreciated, a cooperative is welcome to take it over," explained Echtler. He did not respond to Loy's and Erhard's comments.
For Echtler, however, there was also a lot of encouragement in the debate: "For now, it's all about the funding applications. And any house that no longer has oil or gas heating is a good house," argued Ulrike Seeling (UWPEO). The project, Michael Steininger-Yang (CSU) stated, is subject to financing. Interested parties could drop out at any time in the event of price increases.
The fact that the possible village heating in Polling is a major topic among the population was finally made clear by town hall employee Heike Bohn: "I actually have conversations about village heating every day. There are really many who have the need to do something. They count on the village heating."