Energy supply: 600 Bocholt households soon to be supplied with biogas

Presentation of the biogas plant in Bocholt.

Naturwärme Bocholt-West GmbH (NWB) is bringing green heat to the Feldmark residential neighbourhood from Bocholter Energie- und Wasserversorgung GmbH (BEW), thereby enabling a largely regenerative heat supply for the neighbourhood. Since its construction in 1997, the neighbourhood has been heated centrally by a modern natural gas cogeneration plant and is now taking a further step towards a sustainable energy supply.

To this end, the regenerative biogas storage power plants of the agricultural businesses Wolbring GbR and Niemann GmbH & Co. KG are now being connected to the existing BEW heating network. NWB was founded jointly by the two companies specifically for the project. Thanks to this forward-looking cooperation, the neighbourhood in Bocholt-West will be supplied with a large proportion of climate-neutral heat from now on. The biogas supply is due to start at the end of the year. The households themselves will not notice the changeover.

Four kilometres of heating network, new transfer station

To make this project possible, NWB is building a new local heating network around four kilometres long. This will transport the heat from the two local biogas storage power plants to the existing BEW heating centre on Fliederweg in Bocholt. The civil engineering work for the network is being carried out by the local companies Nienhaus and Bollwerk, while the professional laying of the heating pipes is being carried out by the Nottuln-based pipe construction company RWT Jagdt. The project was developed and planned by Energethik Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH from Osnabrück, after Energethik had previously developed the two biogas plants into regenerative storage power plants. The transfer station with two heat exchangers, each providing an output of 450 KW, is currently being constructed by BEW. The Saxon specialist PEWO Energietechnik GmbH is supplying an overseas container with a fully equipped compact transfer station for this purpose. Bocholt-based Tekloth GmbH has been commissioned to install the necessary pipework as well as the measurement and control technology.

BEW has agreed a minimum annual purchase of 3.8 million kWh with the neighbouring heat producers, but assumes that up to 5.9 million kWh can be supplied to around 600 private households via the local heating network. This means that up to 87% of the heat supply for the Feldmark-West neighbourhood will be covered by renewable energy in future.

An important contribution to climate protection

Using biogas to generate heat is an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels. Biogas is produced by fermenting plants and animal waste and is therefore climate-neutral and 100% renewable. The use of biogas heat reduces the CO2 emissions of the BEW heating centre by an impressive 87%. That is around 1,500 tonnes of CO2 per year.

What is a storage power plant?

A regenerative storage power plant is a combination of a power plant and an energy storage facility. It always produces electricity at high capacity when it is really needed - and utilises surpluses sensibly when too much electricity has been produced.

In addition to electricity, the regenerative storage power plant produces heat for the operation of intelligent heating networks. The heat generated is temporarily stored in a heat storage tank and fed into the heating network when it is needed. The electricity generated is fed into the public electricity grid at times of high prices, generating revenue that increases the profitability of the plant. This means that a storage power plant is seasonally flexible and can be used to generate electricity, heat or a combination of the two, depending on the application.

Investment in a sustainable future

NWB is investing around 3 million euros in the heating network, subsidised by BAFA via the KWKG (Combined Heat and Power Act) and the state subsidy PROGRES NRW (approx. 55% in total). BEW is investing around 360,000 euros in the construction of the new heat transfer station. Thanks to a funding rate of 40%, made possible by the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA), the project could be realised as part of the federal funding for efficient heating networks. This funding is part of the EU-funded NextGenerationEU programme.

The project represents an important step towards a more sustainable and independent heat supply in Bocholt. BEW is delighted with the successful cooperation and the commitment of all those involved and will continue to work intensively on replacing fossil primary energy sources with renewable alternatives in order to actively contribute to climate protection.

Text: Press release from Bocholter Energie- und Wasserversorgung Bocholt. Editorial responsibility lies with Mr Michael Lütfring, Group Development and Marketing BEW, Tel. 02871 954-1610.

The project is funded by the European Union and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection