Hungerkamp District Heating Network

The “Hungerkamp” district heating project is an innovative initiative led by BS|ENERGY, the energy provider of the city of Braunschweig in Germany.

Location: Braunschweig, Germany
Operator: BS|ENERGY
Project: Local district heating network
CHP unit: 9,200 MWh/y of 100% green electricity and 15,600 MWh/y of 98% green heat
Length of the district heating network: 4 km

The project was triggered by the renovation in a police station. Its old heating installation ran on oil and coal and had to be replaced. It was decided to go beyond mere replacement and to develop a project of green and local heating network for the neighbourhood. It is composed of four main components. The CHP unit produces electricity in addition to heat as a base load and is running on biogas all year long. The wood boiler is powered by wood chips and runs from October to March/April as a medium load, to complete the warm water production from the CHP unit during winter times. The natural gas boiler is used for the peak load and as a reserve. The last component is the hot water storage, which enables to balance supply and demand.

The maximal heating demand amounts to 8 MWth. The whole system replaces 34 old plants running on heating oil and coal and achieves 8,000 tonnes of CO2 savings, thanks to the use of cogeneration and the replacement of fossil fuels by renewable materials. The use of different fuels, as well as the thermal storage allows the system to be flexible to fuel prices and to daily fluctuations.

The Hungerkamp district heating project won a 2015 Global District Energy Climate Award. You can read the full case study.