Source: Energy & Management Powernews, August 10, 2022
At the end of 2023, the largest district cooling center in Europe to date is to go into operation and will then be able to supply around 100 office buildings. For this, eight kilometers of piping are to be installed.
The Mannheim-based industrial services provider Bilfinger is supporting Stadtwerke München (SWM) in the construction of the largest district cooling center in Europe to date. This was reported by the two companies on August 9 in a joint release. According to them, the center at the South Energy Site in Munich-Sendling will be able to provide 36 MW of cooling capacity when completed. Mathematically it would be able to cover thereby the need of approximately 100 office buildings.
It is planned to take the center at the end of 2023 in enterprise. Bilfinger has been commissioned to design and install the necessary equipment, including quite a few pumps, valves and heat exchangers. Among other things, pipelines with a length of around eight kilometers have to be installed and welded. By way of comparison, Munich's entire district cooling network is around 22 kilometers long. Bilfinger is also supporting SWM with the commissioning of the center. Bilfinger and SWM did not provide any information on the investment costs. The work will be carried out by the Austrian Bilfinger Industrial Services GmbH, which will employ around 50 people for this purpose.
70 percent less electricity required
According to the release, the new district cooling center will "flow cold from the South energy site in Munich-Sendling through Isarvorstadt and Ludwigsvorstadt into the city center." Specifically, water with a temperature of six to ten degrees Celsius will be fed into the Munich district cooling network. Via heat exchangers, it absorbs heat in the buildings connected to the network and cools them. The heated water flows back to the central plant, where it is cooled down again and used to provide cooling. SWM uses water from the Isarwerk Canal, among other sources, to cool the water. According to the release, cooling by means of district cooling requires up to 70% less electricity than that with the usual decentralized house air conditioning systems. This "also reduces CO2 emissions accordingly."
Bilfinger Industrial Services had already supported SWM in the construction of Germany's largest geothermal plant to date. It began trial operation at the end of 2021 and can supply around 80,000 Munich residents with district heating. Bilfinger was responsible, among other things, for the construction of the pipelines and the installation of the heat exchangers.
Further information on Europe's largest district cooling center SWM Energy Site South can be found here .
Author: Klaus Fischer
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