From left: Thilo Bär and Fabian Hieber from e-con as well as Peter Hieber, Sibille Schneider, Stefan Kaiser, Klaus Kern, Franz Neukamm from the energy team.
Steinheim shows how local heating works: Successful start for first public information event
As a specialist for regenerative energy supply, e-con from Memmingen is implementing the project
Why should a community decide to have its own local heating network? What are the benefits for the residents? And how does the plan become a functioning heating operation? Questions like these were answered on July 26 at the Steinheim village community center. As a partner for the change in energy policy, e-con from Memmingen had organized the event together with the Steinheim energy team consisting of: Peter Hieber, Stefan Kaiser, Klaus Kern, Franz Neukamm, Matthias Rehklau, Sibille Schneider and Wilhelm Wekwart invited. Many interested citizens came to get to know the project better.
In the course of the development of a commercial customer in Steinheim, there is the possibility to convert all 900 households to climate-friendly and sustainable local heating and to become part of a resource-saving heating network. In this way, more than 4,600 tons of CO2 can be saved and around 1.75 million liters of heating oil can be substituted per year.
e-con, which initiated the sustainable and climate-friendly project together with committed citizens, is responsible for the investment, maintenance, servicing and also the operation of the heating center and the distribution network. “With this project, Steinheim becomes less dependent on fossil fuels and makes an enormous contribution to climate protection. The concept of regional value creation at an affordable price is a complete success at this point – sustainable, economical and secure supply,” says Thilo Bär, project manager at e-con.
For the citizens of Steinheim, who let themselves be connected to the local heating network, the advantages are clear: The subscribers no longer have to worry about fuel procurement, boiler maintenance, chimney cleaning or environmental protection requirements. There is no need to install their own heating system. There is no need for advance financing of fuels, and local heating is stable in price. Experience shows that fluctuations in the energy market have only a minor effect.
“With the local heating network, we are creating a good opportunity to switch heat supply. Local heating is sustainable and offers great cost advantages. It usually makes more sense to tackle such a project as a whole community than to have each household invest individually in a new technology,” clarifies Klaus Kern as a member of the local energy team.
It is also possible to have only a partial connection laid to the building in the first step, so that a house connection can be activated at a later time without any problems. This is recommended not only for owners of fossil-fuel heating systems, but also for those who want to remain flexible in the future. Last but not least, in addition to all the practical aspects, there would always be the good feeling of doing something for the environment and thus for the next generations with climate-friendly heating.
The next step will be to collect the survey forms (existing buildings and new buildings) from the citizens who are interested in switching to renewable heat and to start with the concrete planning.