News
Hörmann Group and Geysir Europe to Develop Germany's Largest Geothermal Power Plant in Geretsried
As of 15 December 2009 Hörmann Energie und Umwelt GmbH, a subsidiary of Hörmann Group has taken over 90% of the shares in Enex Power Germany GmbH, a geothermal project developer. 10% of the shares in Enex Power Germany are still held by Geysir Europe GmbH, a subsidiary of the German company Daldrup & Söhne AG and the Icelandic company Geysir Green Energy ehf. The parties have agreed to keep the purchase price confidential.
Within the next two years the companies Hörmann Energie und Umwelt and Geysir Europe are going to invest more than €70 million in this geothermal project. The site, near the city Geretsried, is located on the geothermal claim “Wolfratshausen”. During the last years the claim has been developed by Enex Power Germany, a former 100% subsidiary of Geysir Europe. More than €8 million have been invested in the project so far, amongst others for the construction of the drill pad at the “Hofgut Breitenbach” near Gelting. Drilling will start in June 2010. Target of the drilling operations is the well-known Malm limestone, geologically considered a very promising reservoir for thermal water. The current plan is to drill 3 wells, each more than 5000 m deep. Over 170 liter per second of thermal water, with a temperature exceeding 127 °C will be pumped out of the depth. Thereby thermal energy equal to 50 MW can be reached. Approximately 5 MW of power will be produced in a binary power plant (Kalina or ORC). The produced electricity will be fed to the grid. The remaining energy is going to be used for district heating.
From December 2009 to March 2010 Exorka, also a subsidiary of Geysir Europe, is going to carry out a 3D seismic survey in Wolfratshausen. That means the underground (approx. 40 square kilometers) will be explored by modern technology (Vibroseismic) in order to develop the drilling program together with the drilling company Daldrup & Söhne AG. Meanwhile Hörmann's affiliate AIC Ingenieursgesellschaft für Bauplanung (Chemnitz, Germany) is completing the planning and building of the power and district heating trace.
The investors, Hörmann and Geysir Europe are optimistic and consider the project as having good potential for renewable energy supply for the region. “We are already engaged in developing renewable energies like geothermal energy, solar power and biomass, and this project complements our portfolio” stated Heinz Runte, CEO of Hörmann Energie und Umwelt. Curd Bems, CEO of Geysir Europe, sees additional potential for the region besides the financial aspect of the heat and power production: “The power plant itself will save more than 20.000 tons of carbon dioxide. Additional tens of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide can be economized by the use of the district heating. Moreover the region becomes more independent from coal, oil and gas.” The project is also very attractive for Josef Daldrup, chairman of one of the most successful drilling companies in Europe. “In Gelting we will drill the deepest well in the world ever planned for a geothermal project. By our long lasting experience and the multitude of our successfully realized drilling operations in the Bavarian Molasse Basin we gained useful knowledge, on which we can fall back on.”
The drilling is scheduled to finish in 2011 and the power plant on-line in 2012.