Malstedt: one village – one local heat network

Future-proofing the Malstedt community

The beautiful village of Malstedt is located in Deinstedt municpiality, in the beautiful Lower Saxony region. The landscape is characterized by woods, grassland and moors; various lakes and rivers. The river Bever goes straight through the village with a population of 300. The inhabitants of Malstedt love their rural idyll, so they decided with extraordinary unity to install a biogas plant for their heat and electricity supply. Over 90% of the households are convinced of the value of this project, so an efficient network solution could be quickly reached.

The sustainable energy mission through local biomass would supply 58 buildings, both homes and businesses. This would consists mainly out of bio-wastes such as maize, grasses and manure for the local energy supply. This crosses out the need for any fossil fuels at minimal environmental impact. To ensure an efficient and reliable supply the connection from 3 Combined Heat and Power installations (CHP), 1 load boiler and 4 kilometers of Flexalen pre-insulated pipes were provided to ensure a future proof-network. For maximizing the efficiency of their heat distribution, Malstedt decided on a sustainably safe and reliable Flexalen system for its corrosion free, pressure stable, and temperature and moisture resistant properties and its high and lasting energy performance.

Goals

The initiators – 4 local farmers – wanted to be independent in their energy supply, and support the region with the multitude of local resources. An important aim was the protect the existing environment by minimizing space requirements of the heating network. The drastic reduction of energy costs easily brought a lot of support for the project.

Results

The main focus was the supply of heat, which is realized through 3 heating cycles. Each of them is fed by a CHP. If the CHP demand exceeds the energy supply, there is a load boiler available for the whole network to ensure year-round land appropriate warmth for all connected households and companies.

The now biggest district-wide biogas plant in the region is located at the edge of the village and regularly supplied by 15 local farmers. For the local heat network, a total of 4.2 km of Flexalen pre-insulated pipes were implemented. This allowed a 30% cut in heating costs. Such a short return on investment was happily received by both suppliers and users.

Statistics

• over 90% of the households are supplied by the network
• 4,200 meters of pre-insulated pipes
• 30 % reduction of heating costs

Source: Thermaflex