June 2, 2008
Geothermal Electricity Booming in Germany
by Jane Burgermeister, European Correspondent
Berlin, Germany [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]
Electricity from geothermal sources is set to soar in Germany -- and all
thanks to a law that has made drilling wells deep enough to hit the hot
temperature water, which is needed to produce electricity, financially
viable.
"Geothermal sources could supply Germany's electricity needs 600 times
over."
-- Werner Bussmann, CEO, German Geothermal Association
Less than 0.4 percent of Germany's total primary energy supply came from
geothermal sources in 2004. But after a renewable energy law that introduced
a tariff scheme of EU €0.15 [US $0.23] per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for
electricity produced from geothermal sources came into effect that year, a
construction boom was sparked and the new power plants are now starting to
come online.
"Geothermal sources could supply Germany's electricity needs 600 times
over," Werner Bussmann, CEO of the German Geothermal Association [Geothermische
Vereinigung], told RenewableEnergyWorld.com.
He said special, cost effective technology allowed energy to be extracted
from geothermal reservoirs containing low- to moderate-temperature water
that are so typical of Germany.
Innovative technology is important because Germany, unlike countries such as
Iceland, Italy or Indonesia, does not have volcanic activity or the
associated dry steam reservoirs that can be used to produce electricity
directly.
"Geothermal electricity has the advantage of being available 24 hours a day,
8000 hours a year, and this makes it a great source of baseload power,"
Bussmann said.
He predicted that Germany could be generating several thousands of megawatts
(MW) of electricity from geothermal sources in a couple of decades. There
are already four small geothermal power plants successfully operating in
Germany, albeit supplying only a tiny amount of electricity.
More plants — some as big as 8-10 MW — are due to go into operation in
2009-2010 in Sauerlach, Dürrnhaar, Riedstadt, Speyer, Gross Schoenebeck and
Mauerstetten. And looking 3 to 5 years ahead, there could be more than a
hundred plants. About 150 geothermal power plant projects are in the
pipeline representing an investment of 4 billion euros, according to the
German government.
Just how soon these geothermal power plants will be built, however, depends
on whether there is enough drilling equipment available to dig deep enough
to hit the hotter water needed for electricity generation. At the moment, a
shortage of drilling equipment is pushing up the cost for constructing a
geothermal power plant, Bussmann said.
Costs of EU €30 to 40 million [US $47 to 63 million] for a 3.5 MW plant with
a life-cycle of 30 years or longer are typical in Germany, he said. The
price of drilling equipment accounts for 60 percent of the total cost, and
this has doubled in the last 3 to 4 years.
In response, Germany's manufacturing sector is now gearing up to produce
more drills, so removing a major obstacle to the future expansion of
geothermal electricity. Also, the cost of building geothermal plants could
fall in the next few years as more efficient technology is developed,
Bussmann predicted. He said the geothermal industry could achieve a price
per kWh that makes it competitive with gas and oil in 20 years time
depending on how quickly the price of oil and gas increases.
The best geothermal generation opportunities in Germany are located in
southern Bavaria — where water of temperatures of 140°C or hotter can be
found 5,000 meters below the ground — and in the Upper Rhine region as well
as in northern Germany.
The first pioneer geothermal plant to start operating in Germany is situated
in Neustadt-Glewe in the north-eastern part of the country. The 230-kW
combined electricity and heat power plant started up in 2003 and extracts
water with a temperature of 97 °C from a well 2250 meters under the ground.
It supplies 1,300 households with heat and a further 500 households with
electricity.
Other plants now operating are the 3.5-MW plant at Unterhaching close to
Munich, in Bavaria, which supplies 20,000 households with electricity and
heat as well as Unterhaching, which is the first geothermal plant in Germany
to use the "Kalina" technology that allows energy to be extracted from water
of low to moderate temperatures. At that plant water is extracted at a
temperature of 122 °C from a well 3,500 meters deep at a rate of 150 liters
a second. Another 2.5-MW plant in Landau taps water of 150°C that is located
3,000 meters beneath the ground. Finally, an EU €17 million [US $26.7
million] 550-kW plant is due to go into operation in Bruchsal this autumn.
The power plant will extract water at temperatures of 128°C from a well 2500
meters deep to generate electricity for 1000 households.
Though geothermal electricity is in its infancy in Germany, geothermal heat
has been around for a long time, and its use is also expanding rapidly. In
2007, there were an estimated 130,000 geothermal heat pumps operating in
residential and commercial buildings. About 25,000 to 30,000 new pumps are
being added each year.
Bussmann said it costs about EU €18,000 [US $28,000] to build a geothermal
heat pump for a family-sized house with a surface area of about 150 square
meters in northern Germany where geological conditions make drilling easier.
Jane Burgermeister is a RenewableEnergyWorld.com European
Correspondent based in Austria
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