30 October 2020
WORK & LIFE
Bio-District Heating Seefeld: Energy from Biomass
Those who take the federal highway to Seefeld will pass an inconspicuous green building: The Bio-District Heating Seefeld. Here, heat and sustainable green electricity are generated from regional biomass for numerous households and businesses in the region. Managing Director and energy specialist Dipl. Ing. Andreas Glatzl gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the environmentally-friendly district heating.
It is a warm and sunny autumn day in Seefeld when Chief Engineer Andreas Glatzl greets us in the courtyard of the impressive sixteen-meter-high combustion plant. Twenty impressive years of experience with renewable energies, fourteen of which as managing director of Ortswärme Seefeld – this man is passionately dedicated to the environment. Just as he introduces us to the enormous weather-protected storage areas outside, a heavy container truck rolls into the loading bay, bringing fresh biomass for the boilers. We briefly marvel like little children as the transporter piles up tons of wood chips into fragrant wood mountains, then we follow the production chain indoors.
Inferno truth.
The eternal hellfire of Seefeld burns here – but completely free of sin, Mr. Glatzl emphasizes with a grin, pointing to the highly complex exhaust gas filtration technology. After four stages of filtration, no visible smoke comes from the chimney, as even the residual heat from the exhaust gases is utilized here. Through a small hatch, the inferno, with a temperature of around 800 degrees, greets us, leaving us impressed and oscillating between goosebumps and sweating. Using the residual heat from the impressive combustion chamber, the thermal oil system (using special oil as a heat transfer medium) generates a total of about 6,500 kilowatts of thermal energy from biomass. This energy is then delivered via a kilometer-long, specially insulated piping system to the end consumers in the village. With the highest density of wellness businesses in the Alps, there is naturally quite a heat demand in the region, as the manager illustrates realistically. Today, almost all of the local large businesses utilize the environmentally friendly thermal energy from the bio district heating of Seefeld, and since 2017, the heating plant has also been producing green electricity – for about 1,100 households throughout Seefeld.
Sustainably competitive.
Both in terms of price and energy offerings, they remain quite competitive, as the advantages of the local bio-fuel plant are directly passed on to the end customers due to short delivery routes and efficient control systems. Initially, this required some convincing, recalls chief engineer Andreas Glatzl, reflecting on the initial founding phase. In early 2006, together with Mayor Werner Frießer, Edi Hiltpolt, and Markus Gapp, the shared vision of a sustainable energy solution for Seefeld emerged. "At that time, there was the idea of a small wood chip heating system for the new sports and congress center (SKZ), but we ultimately came away with the vision of creating something larger," recalls the managing director. "The goal was to unite ecology and economy at the sun plateau in a meaningful and sustainable circular economy – future-proof and expandable."
In addition to heat from biomass, the heating plant now also supplies green electricity from small hydropower plants and photovoltaic systems. And wherever biomass is generated privately (for example, from tree and garden work), the local heating service in Seefeld offers a free pick-up service, which then feeds the heating furnaces along the main road.
Denke groß für das Geschäft.
The most important aspects for the end customers are, of course, safety and service comfort – this is also emphasized at the Bio Heating Plant in Seefeld, explains Chief Technician Glatzl in the control room of the heating system. There is always someone on duty here, around the clock, even on holidays. In the nearly 14 years of operation, there has not been a single unplanned outage, and they are a bit proud of that. Additionally, the high-tech system operates completely automated and remotely monitored, allowing technicians to securely control all processes in real-time while on the go.
That the environmentally friendly energy industry in Seefeld has now almost become a matter of course delights the sustainability expert the most. Therefore, he prefers to climb onto the small flat roof of the facility, gazing far over Seefeld and also a little back: "Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.", Glatzl grins.
Blog Tags
Share