The "Alanbrooke Quarter" is being built on the approximately 18-hectare site of a former British barracks in Paderborn (NRW). With its inner-city location, eleven listed buildings in the North German Brick Gothic style and a generously laid out quarter square as the new center, it is considered a showcase urban development project.
The energy supply systems were tailored to the quarter, as they have to efficiently supply both new apartments and buildings as well as the listed building stock from the 19th century. After weighing up the possible options, planners and heating network operators opted for a concept with low and high temperature networks, heat pumps and a combined heat and power plant.
The former barracks site of Alanbrooke Barracks is located in the western part of Paderborn's city center, around one kilometer from the main train station as the crow flies. The military use of this area has a long history. An infantry barracks in North German brick Gothic style was built here back in 1898. The buildings, most of which are still preserved today, are a characteristic example of the historicist architectural style - and have been integrated into the new quarter. Alanbrooke Quarter with residential and commercial use In its new form, the Alanbrooke Quarter will be used for apartments and the creative industries. In total, more than 800 residential units are to be built in multi-storey apartment buildings and terraced houses, 30% of which will be price-controlled apartments. This should also improve the supply of affordable, energy-efficient and attractive living space in Paderborn in East Westphalia.
The district's heat supply is provided by an energy center housed in one of the listed buildings. The main components installed are a combined heat and power unit, a brine-to-water heat pump, an air-to-water heat pump and buffer storage tanks.
Development of the site began in 2020 and was completed in 2025. In spring last year, the one-kilometre-long low-temperature network (NT) was put into operation for the supply, and the 900-metre-long high-temperature network (HT) was also filled ready for operation at the end of 2025. According to Wärmeservice Paderborn, this is an independent heating network for the district. Future development opportunities lie in the expansion of the heat supply to surrounding residential buildings and commercial units. The old building stock is supplied via the CHP unit The listed old buildings are supplied by the high-temperature heating network with a total heat output of 1,600 kW. In the HT network, the flow temperature is around 75 degrees Celsius and the return temperature is 50 degrees Celsius. The heat required for this is generated by a "GG 202" combined heat and power plant from the manufacturer Sokratherm with a module-internal thermal output of 323 kW and an electrical output of 205 kW as well as a peak load boiler system. According to the operator, only 10 percent of the heat required will probably be generated by the peak load boilers in future. The CHP unit is operated with the renewable fuel biomethane.
The CHP unit is primarily operated as it efficiently supplies the higher temperatures required to heat the old building stock, according to the CHP unit manufacturer Sokratherm. The heat pumps could only provide these with a low COP and therefore high electricity consumption.
The CHP unit also offers further economic advantages in this concept: the electricity required for the energy center's own power supply - heat pumps, circulation pumps for the heating networks, ventilation, control technology and lighting - is also supplied by the CHP unit, while any electricity not required is fed into the public grid during the heating period, i.e. at times when electricity from renewable sources is in short supply. The CHP went into operation in mid-January 2026 and is expected to generate around 1 million kWh of electricity per year in addition to heat. New buildings receive low-temperature heat The new buildings in the Alanbrooke district, which were built to the KfW 40 standard, are supplied with a total of 2,000 kW of heat via the low-temperature network. The heating network has a flow temperature of 42 degrees Celsius and a return temperature of 33 degrees Celsius. The central generator for the low-temperature heat network is the brine heat pump with a thermal output of 645 kW. It draws its heat energy from a 1.5-metre-deep, 10,000-square-metre geothermal collector field that was laid under the park in the district.
The brine heat pump also draws heat from the condensing heat exchanger of the CHP unit. The brine mixture from the collector field is preheated by the condensing heat exchanger before it is fed to the collector and then to the brine heat pump. As the temperatures of the mixture at the outlet of the heat pump and before entering the geothermal collector are very low at 4 and 8 degrees respectively, the heat exchanger integrated in the CHP exhaust gas path works particularly effectively here.
It achieves a heat output of up to 97 kW without additional gas consumption. This concept makes particularly efficient use of the CHP unit's heat generation, achieving an overall efficiency of up to 98.3 percent - based on the calorific value of the gas.
In the transitional season, from an outside temperature of around 6 degrees Celsius, a 176 kW air-to-water heat pump also generates heat for the low-temperature network and a recooler relieves the ground collector with regenerative heat from the outside air. At particularly low outside temperatures, the heat can also be flexibly fed from the high temperature network into the low temperature network. The heat pumps in this system achieve a particularly high coefficient of performance (COP) of 3.9 (air/water heat pump) and 4.5 (brine/water heat pump) due to their control at the optimum operating conditions in each case.
Heat storage tanks were also installed to provide the necessary flexibility. Five buffer storage tanks with a total volume of 26 cubic meters were installed in the building for the NT network and an external buffer storage tank with a volume of 51 cubic meters was installed in the HT network.The total amount of heat expected to be generated by the district when completed is 5,200 MWh per year.
In addition to a sustainable energy supply, a mobility concept was also implemented with a connection to local and long-distance public transport, new cycle paths, bicycle parking spaces and parking spaces with charging facilities.
Author: Heidi Roider |
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