Talks are ongoing between the three mayors of the municipalities – Robert Pötzsch of Waldkraiburg, Christian Weyrich of Aschau, and Petra Jackl of Kraiburg. Also involved in the project is Stadtwerke Waldkraiburg head Herbert Lechner and ONEO Managing Director Ernst Burgschwaiger.
A geothermal borehole had already been drilled in Waldkraiburg back in 2010. There are now plans of drilling a second doublet in Waldkraiburg to support increased heating demand during longer and colder winters. “Our goal is to develop the city of Waldkraiburg in large steps over the next few years. Planning and implementation are already underway, which also includes Waldkraiburg West,” commented Mayor Pötzsch.
Aschau is also considering a drilling site. As Burgschwaiger presented to the municipal councils, the location and geology in Aschau-Werk is very similar to that of Waldkraiburg. This makes it a very good candidate for geothermal drilling.
An association with Waldkraiburg provides more customers for district heating, and thus higher utilization. However, drilling the doublet and constructing the central heating network will cost over EUR 20 million. These high costs make the idea of forming a supra-local cooperation attractive.
“Kraiburg alone can never handle a local heating network that is fed with warm water from deep geothermal energy,” said Kraiburg’s mayor Petra Jackl. “If there are additional wells in the neighboring municipalities and we join forces, it would certainly be possible to supply Kraiburg and other municipalities as well.” Kraiburg is only three kilometers away from the current drilling site in Waldkraiburg.
“We intend to have a feasibility study carried out for a local heating network,” added Jackl. “For our region, a merger in terms of heat supply with deep geothermal energy would be a significant added value. In my opinion, cooperation between the municipalities around Waldkraiburg would be an enormous locational advantage.”
The region surrounding Waldkraiburg had already been identified as having good geothermal potential based on an expert report published by the Bavarian Geothermal Alliance.
