New heating plant planned for Bamberg

22.11.2024

Stadtwerke Bamberg is planning a new heating plant. Two river water heat pumps will supply most of the heat. The heating plant will also serve as a demonstrator for the skilled trades.

Stadtwerke Bamberg is planning to build a heating plant between the River Regnitz and the new training center of the Chamber of Crafts (HWK). Most of the heat from the river is to be used for this, the utility announced on November 21. In addition to the planned large heat pumps, wood chip boilers will be used to cover peak loads.

The planned 10 MW heating plant in the southern corridor is due to go into operation in autumn 2027 and will supply 2,000 households in the south of Bamberg, including 666 Stadtbau apartments in the Gereuth district, as well as the new training center of the HWK for Upper Franconia. The heating plant and flow heat pumps will also serve as a demonstrator for training and further education at the HWK.

According to a feasibility study carried out by Stadtwerke Bamberg and the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology (IEE), the heat pumps can supply a total of 90 percent of the required heat, the supplier added. For this purpose, 300 liters of water per second are taken from the Regnitz and returned to the river downstream at a slightly lower temperature.

Stadtwerke currently anticipates total investment in the mid double-digit million range for the new heat transition project in the south of Bamberg. The investments are also to be financed by federal subsidies.

Heating plant as a training center for the skilled trades

For the HWK, it is also a project of particular interest, explains Matthias Grassmann, President of the Chamber of Crafts for Upper Franconia, also with reference to the plumbing, heating and air conditioning trade: "For us, the cooperation with Stadtwerke Bamberg is doubly important: on the one hand because of the support for the sustainable energy supply of our new training center, on the other hand because the flow heat pump can serve as a demonstrator and young trainees throughout Upper Franconia, especially from the HVAC trade, can get to know the latest technology on site."

For Stadtwerke, this is the second district project with mainly renewable heat sources. A few weeks ago, the Upper Franconian utility company commissioned a heating system for 1,200 old and new apartments and commercial spaces in Bamberg's Lagarde conversion district, 70 percent of which is powered by renewable energy (we reported). Stadtwerke was able to acquire a total of 13.5 million euros in funding from the federal government and the government of Upper Franconia, a Bavarian central authority.

Various regenerative heat sources also come together in the energy center for Lagarde. The heat is fed via a cold local heating network to decentralized heat pumps, which are responsible for space heating and domestic hot water.

The central components of the sustainable heat supply are a 250-metre-long wastewater heat exchanger, geothermal collectors covering an area of 32,000 square meters under buildings and the open spaces in the district as well as two geothermal probe fields with a total of 74 probes at a depth of 120 meters.

The supply of the Lagarde district also serves as a research project, which is being led by Nuremberg Institute of Technology. It is responsible for the measurement concepts and the evaluation of the measurement data. Stefan Loskarn, project manager at Stadtwerke Bamberg on the Lagarde campus, said in the autumn that it was new to implement a predominantly renewable heat supply on a site in the middle of the city, where old and new buildings stand side by side and space is at a premium. "We are providing a model for others: because what works on Lagarde also works elsewhere," hopes Loskarn.

Author: Heidi Roider, E&M powernews