GERMANY: A 6MW geothermal heat pump system capable of supplying over 6,000 households is set to be installed in the Wilhelmsburg district of Hamburg.
In an expansion of the current Wilhelmsburg heating network operated by Hamburger Energiewerke, construction of a heating plant at the geothermal energy site is scheduled to start in spring 2024, with connection to the network in spring 2025.
The project team has installed special filter pipes in the production borehole over the past few months and carried out production tests, during which thermal water was successfully pumped from a depth of over 1,300m at a temperature of 48ºC. The injection test, in which the extracted thermal water is returned to the 130m thick sandstone layer via a second borehole, was also successful.
According to a study by Germany’s Federal Environment Agency, UBA, deep geothermal energy could contribute 118TWh per year to climate-neutral heat supply by 2050. A total of 42 deep geothermal systems – defined as systems with a drilling depth of over 400m and an average depth of 2,500m – have been implemented in Germany with an installed heat output of 417MW.
