German transmission operator 50Hertz and EVH, a company of Stadtwerke Halle group, are collaborating to build a 40MW power-to-heat plant.
The unit will function like an immersion heater, converting electrical energy into thermal energy.
The aim of the plant is to use excess electricity generated by wind farms in the northeast of Germany to supply heat to the city of Halle (Saale).
By using the electricity to supply heat, 50Hertz and EVH will prevent curtailment and the loss of power that cannot be consumed or transported to remote destinations.
Dirk Biermann, chief markets and system operations officer at 50Hertz, said: “The ‘using instead of curtailing’ principle makes economic and ecological sense, as it allows the potential of renewable energy to be exploited more fully.
“Our 50Hertz System Control in Neuenhagen near Berlin will be able to deploy the unit from the control centre of EVH, so that more renewable energy can be integrated into the energy system and at the same time remove bottlenecks in the electricity grid.”
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According to 50Hertz, a recent change to the German Energy Industry Act (Energiewirtschaftsgesetz, EnWG) has removed any financing restrictions applicable to transmission system operators for non-coastal projects. This allows plants such as the one in Halle, in the more southern regions, to be realised.
And the Halle region in the south of Saxony-Anhalt lends itself to this kind of project due to the high supply of wind power.
The €15 million unit will be operational by the end of the year and the partners have already signed a redispatch-contract.
Germany’s renewables requirements
According to Federal Environment Agency statistics, Germany saw around nine% more electricity generated from renewable sources in 2022 than in the previous year.
At 128 TWh (of which around 103 TWh from onshore wind turbines and around 25 TWh from offshore wind turbines), electricity generation from wind energy was also 12% higher in 2022 than in the previous year with little wind.
Statistics show that the gross power generation from renewable energies in 2022 will be around 256 terawatt hours (TWh) above the generation of previous years, but below the target of 269 TWh announced in the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG 2021).
In order to cover the envisaged 80% of German electricity consumption with renewable electricity in 2030, a volume of about 600 TWh will be needed.
This means that green electricity generation will have to more than double in the next eight years, states the Federal Environment Agency.
