Geothermal developer Deutsche Erdwärme AG (DEW) wants to build a geothermal power plant in Graben-Neudorf in the North of the city of Karlsruhe in the state.
Thermal water with a temperature of around 160 degrees is to be pumped upwards from a depth of around 3,500 meters via a borehole to generate electricity and heat and then returned via a second borehole. The company has set its target on a 6 MW capacity geothermal power plant, which could supply around 10,000 households with electricity.
DEW has drawn up corresponding plans. From the beginning, DEW promised to provide extensive information about the project. For Friday last week, the potential operator invited to a public information event in the Pestalozzi Hall in Graben-Neudorf. Pre-registration was necessary due to the pandemic, 120 visitors had announced their arrival.
DEW is an innovative high-tech company which, with geothermal power plants, will make its contribution to the necessary energy transition and thus to climate protection, emphasized its managing director Herbert Pohl. The Graben-Neudorfer project is the furthest advanced. The best international partners are working together for the implementation.
The targeted location in the eastern area of ??Graben-Neudorf next to the substation at the intersection of B35 / 36 and Kreisstraße 3531 emerged from a huge database. There DEW acquired a piece of land from the country.
The subsoil is of particular importance. The fractures in the red sandstone there are ideally suited, in contrast to hard granite structures that were drilled in other, sometimes negative projects, Ulrich Lotz gave an insight into the geological structures. This is significant for assessing seismic activities, which Stefan Baisch reported. The planned monitoring network registers the smallest vibrations and reacts to events that are far below the permissible limit values.
The project, for which the necessary ecological data was collected, is currently in the project development phase. If the submitted main operating plan (to which the municipality and others are to be heard) is approved by the mining authority, the drilling will start in 2021 and the power plant will be built by the start of operations in 2023, explained project manager Moritz Hartmann.
Questions about economy, safety, drilling, but also liability and the financial limitation of liability were the focus of the questioners from Graben-Neudorf, while those from Landau, the Ortenaukreis or the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis were concerned with problems there. Both the audience and the podium attracted attention to the execution of a BUND representative, who rated the system positively, even though several points still had to be significantly improved.
