Danish geothermal developer Innargi A/S has entered into an agreement with Vestforbrænding, Denmark’s largest waste management and energy company, to investigate the possibilities for geothermal heating in Vestforbrænding’s supply area. If deemed feasible, geothermal can make a significant contribution to the fulfilment of Vestforbrænding’s Heating Plan 2030, which involves one the largest district heating projects in Denmark.
Vestforbrænding is servicing approximately 1 million citizens in Greater Copenhagen and Northern Seeland. The primary focus of the business is to harvest the substantial resource value in waste, whether it be for recycling or as fuel for energy production.
The new agreement between Innargi and Vestforbrænding is part of the work to realize Vestforbrænding’s plan for 30,000 homes in Greater Copenhagen to be converted from oil and gas supply to green district heating. The plan almost doubles Vestforbrænding’s heat deliveries and will make the network one of the largest district heating networks in Denmark.
“We will need much more green district heating in the future, and geothermal is a perfect fit. Our immediate assessment is that we will need up to three geothermal plants with a total output of 55 MW, but if the price is competitive, we can probably phase in up to 100 MW of geothermal energy,” says Steen Neuchs Vedel, CEO of Vestforbrænding.
He adds that geothermal energy is one of the supplementary heat sources that Vestforbrænding will use as part of the increased district heating production. Other sources include surplus heat, utilization of CO2 capture, and heat pumps.
Clarification at the beginning of 2025
Until the end of 2024, the parties will analyse the subsurface as well as the current and future district heating network to map where geothermal can best be integrated into the network in interaction with Vestforbrænding’s other heat sources.
“We are very happy with the agreement as our initial assessments show that geothermal has a significant potential as a new renewable heat source in Greater Copenhagen. Vestforbrænding is currently establishing new, energy-efficient district heating networks, and they allow for a very efficient use of geothermal, because the temperatures that the subsurface can deliver play perfectly together with the lower temperatures used in modern district heating networks,” says Samir Abboud, CEO of Innargi.
Innargi continues to expand its geothermal heating portfolio which now consists of several projects in Denmark, Flensburg and Kiel in Germany, and Poznan in Poland.
