As of: March 1, 2024, 7:13 a.m
By: Lisa Metzger
Comments
Press
Split
One of the most efficient biogas plants in Germany is located in Unsleben.
It not only generates electricity, but also uses waste heat.
A model that could inspire other communities.
Unsleben – Josef Demas, the managing director of the biogas plant, seems full of enthusiasm for his plant.
“This facility is an unparalleled power plant.
We have one of the most efficient systems – I think almost in all of Germany,” he enthuses in a report by Bayerischer Rundfunk.
The system is the heart of the heating transition in his community.
The plant, which is located about half a kilometer from the village, uses two combined heat and power plants (CHP) to generate electricity and use waste heat.
There is also a biogas processing plant on the site where the raw biogas is “refined” to achieve a higher energy content and feed it into the public gas network.
It all started with a wood chip cogeneration plant
As the BR reports, the beginnings of the heat transition in the community go back to a wood chip cogeneration plant.
Here, water was heated and stored in two 6,500 liter buffer tanks before being fed into the local heating network.
This local heating network has been in operation in the 930-resident community since 2004.
Nowadays, the wood chip cogeneration plant is only used when the thermal energy from the biogas plant is not sufficient.
A biogas plant between cultivated fields (symbolic image).
© IMAGO/imageBROKER/Lilly
The greenhouse is heated with waste heat from the biogas plant
Christian Förster runs his market garden near the biogas plant at the entrance to the village of Unsleben.
Since 2007 he has been heating his greenhouses with waste heat from the biogas plant.
The pipes with the warm water come directly from the floor of the greenhouse, from where the heat is distributed throughout the greenhouses and the sales area.
Förster is happy with this decision because he has been independent of oil and gas prices for 17 years.
“It has become cheaper.
And we are proud that we use the waste heat that comes from rotting plants.
“In this way, we produce plants again, which then go back into the process of rotting – a cycle,” explains Förster to BR.
(By the way: Our Bayern newsletter informs you daily about all the important stories from Bavaria.)
Village community has been actively involved in the heating transition since 1996
Unsleben has been active in the heating transition since 1996.
However, Mayor Michael Gottwald criticizes the BR for saying that other municipalities and the federal government have remained inactive for too long.
“After phasing out nuclear power in 2011, we sat back and actually should have started expanding renewable energies.
We missed that.
Then we rested on the cheap gas.
Now we have to get going again.” He emphasizes that we have known for a long time that things could not continue like this and that we are heading towards a climate crisis.
My news
Truck loses tree trunks - motorway in Bavaria temporarily closed
“I don’t have that much”: Pensioner is supposed to pay 250,000 euros to fraudsters – and drives all over Franconia to do so
14-year-old from Bavaria wanted to take the bus to see his father - instead of Pforzheim he ended up in Berlinlesen
500 years old and dilapidated: Franke buys a castle - read “Childhood dream that comes true”.
Serious accident on the ski slope: 13-year-old crashes into a standing 11-year-old at high speed
Desperately looking for a home: read “Bronco has already spent a third of his short life in the animal shelter”.
Although not every community can build a biogas plant and thus advance the heat transition, the conditions in Unsleben were ideal.
Nevertheless, Mayor Gottwald would like to encourage his colleagues in other communities to take action quickly on the heating transition, “because it feels good to have done something and ultimately there will be something left over financially at the end.” The example of the small community in the Rhön district Grabfeld shows that it can work – at least on a small scale.
You can find more news in our Merkur.de app, now in an improved design with more personalization functions.
Direct download, more information can be found here.
Are you an enthusiastic user of WhatsApp?
Merkur.de will now keep you up to date via a new Whatsapp channel.
Click here to go directly to the channel.
Editor Lisa Metzger used AI and then carefully reviewed this article.
Find out more about our AI principles here.