Power plant uses heat from the sea to warm up houses in Aarhus

A power plant that was recently inaugurated in Aarhus will use heat from Aarhus Bay to provide the many new inhabitants and companies in the area with district heating.

Heat from seawater

The power plant will profit from its close proximity to Aarhus Bay by extracting energy from the seawater.

The seawater is collected from the dock and transported to the power plant through an underground pipeline. When the power plant’s heat pump has absorbed the energy from the water, the cooled water is led back out into the harbour.

Besides a heat exchanger, the power plant will include a heat pump that gathers heat from Aarhus Bay. The pump will supplement heat when the electricity price is low, and it is able to produce 4.0 MWh heat for each MWh electricity it uses.

The power plant replaces the two oil-fired district heating stations that, during the coldest days of the year, provide Aarhus East with heat.

More than just heat

The plant will not only be supplying heat to the area, it will also constitute an attraction for passers-by. The plant will be part of the streetscape, and the plan is that citizens in the area will be able to use the outer part of the building for eg. sport activities.

“The new power plant in Aarhus East will contribute with more than just district heating. The building will be an attraction for local citizens, but it will also be a display window for technical experts from the world’s major cities who are looking for possibilities within the green transition”, says Kristian Würtz, member of the Department for Technology and Environmental Issues in Aarhus municipality.

The power plant will be a building that interacts with its surroundings. It is located close to recreational areas and high profile architecture. The building will therefore be equipped with a large window section with a view to the power plant, in order for Aarhus Waste Incineration (AffaldVarme Aarhus) to be able to use the exterior of the building to explain the know-how of district heating.

The cost of the heat supply to Aarhus East is EUR 23 million and is budgeted through Aarhus Waste Incineration’s investment plan. Hereof, EUR 403,000 are from EU funding to the development project for the ocean heat pump.

Source: State of Green