Intelligent Energy Planning for Largest Urban Development Project in Northern Europe

In Hamburg city’s newest quarter, HafenCity, the skyscrapers provide an impressive view over the River Elbe. If a direct view of the river is not on offer from an office or apartment there is likely to be one over the area’s inner harbours. HafenCity is by far the largest city quarter in Germany and from the beginning it was equipped with a modern energy infrastructure. A cornerstone of the development has been the supply of combined heat and power to all business and residential buildings — to the delight of technology suppliers like Denmark’s Danfoss, which has placed district heating substations in the basements of nearly 120 multi-storey buildings.

HafenCity is a town planner’s dream. From the start it was planned and developed to exactly meet what the politicians wanted. The 127 hectare (314 acre) former port area in the middle of Hamburg was originally owned by the city authority. Planners had no external landowner they had to negotiate with and there were few existing buildings.

“Energy supply has been planned in fine detail and that makes it a unique area in Germany. It was decided that combined heat and power (CHP) district heating should supply the whole quarter and connection to it was compulsory, justified by the argument that all investors knew what the conditions were from the start. Along with tough demands on energy efficiency in buildings that makes HafenCity Hamburg’s greenest quarter,” says Michael Schumburg, marketing manager for Danfoss GmbH.

Metropolis with district energy ambitions

As with many other big cities, the north German metropolis is growing rapidly. Hamburg is an economic power house, attracting many new citizens and businesses each month demanding lots of new dwellings and business premises. The city council wants to develop the city and its state sustainably with district heating and cooling as part of the solution.

“Hamburg is a very attractive city for Danfoss, partly because there are many new district heating projects, which we of course enter the bidding for, and partly because Hamburg — including HafenCity — is a place that the rest of Germany is watching and gathering inspiration from. Many observe what we are doing here,” says Schumburg.

Major Danish export focus on Germany

Denmark has intensified its energy cooperation with Germany, particularly with the three states that are forging ahead with the national transition to green energy supply, Hamburg, Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia. They have entered into a cooperation agreement with the Danish Energy Agency, the Danish Trade Council and several of Denmark’s industry bodies, including DI Energy. The cooperative project has initiated a number of trade visits in both directions and a stronger cooperation has resulted between partners and customers in the three states.

The German government’s decision to transition the country to a clean energy supply, dubbed the Energiewende, is a main reason for Germany’s interest in Denmark and Danish solutions, given that Denmark has gathered a number of learning lessons that can be inspirational for Germany. One example that delegations have found interesting is that large solar heating facilities can be coupled into district heating networks, which is an important part of the Wärmewende in several German states. There is equal interest in gathering inspiration from waste-to-energy and cogeneration in combination with district heating.

You can read the full story in the “Energy Denmark”- DI Energy annual magazine 2016, pages 23-25 (by First Purple Publishing).