Danish geothermal developer Innargi has signed an agreement with district heating company Skanderborg-Hørning Fjernvarme A.m.b.a to evaluate the feasibility of a geothermal district heating system in the towns of Skanderborg and Hørning in Denmark.
District heating in Skanderborg and Hørning is actually already green by using biomass, but the ambition is to make it even more sustainable. This will help make the region less dependent on the price of biomass while also producing less emissions. The district heating company’s board of directors has initiated the project with a master plan to be ready sometime during 2023.
The parties involved expect for it to take about half a year for the contract to be in place. If they succeed, the expectation is for the plant to be placed on Danmarksvej in Skanderborg.
Part of the plan is to connect the heating networks of Skanderborg and Hørning. “We need to connect the networks in Hørning and Skanderborg if we are to secure a sufficient foundation for geothermal energy”, explains Erling Weber Jensen, Chairman of the Board of Skanderborg-Hørning Fjernvarme A.m.b.a.
“When you are directly owned by the consumers, you get a lot of comments while at your local supermarket now that heating prices are a hot topic. We are well off in Skanderborg and Hørning. And we need to be that in the future as well – that is why we are taking the initiative now.” added Jensen.
“This enterprise fits nicely into the city council’s goals of phasing out the use of biomass as fuel and instead replace it with 100 pct renewable and sustainable energy sources for the heating supply. Geothermal energy is independent of the season and is in that way both a stable and sustainable source of heating – even during the winter. Naturally, that is why we support and hope for the initial investigation to show positive results,” said Mayor of Skanderborg, Frands Fischer.
“Usually, you would need a certain size for geothermal energy to be a competitive option. The more wells to drill and plants to build, the cheaper the heating price. However, the projects in the big metropolitan areas enable the 2 district heating networks of nearby smaller cities to make use of a local resource in the form of geothermal energy. That is why I believe that many more district heating companies – and therefore also heating customers – will gain access to geothermal energy in the coming years.” said Innargi CEO Samir Abboud.
Innargi is currently in the process of building the EU’s largest geothermal heating plant for the district heating company Kredsløb in Aarhus, Denmark. The company had also entered a framework agreement with district heating companies for geothermal heating in Copenhagen.
Source: Think Geoenergy