What is the potential of geothermal energy for heat transformation in cities?
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Munich is Germany’s third largest city and the country’s second-largest employment hub. The city’s population will rise to 1.72 million by 2030. On the one hand, the city has to deal with a rising energy demand due to its dynamic development and economic prosperity. On the other hand, Munich set itself the goal to become climate neutral by 2035.
With Decarb City Pipes 2050, the City of Munich aims to develop area-specific solutions to phase out fossil generation, with a focus on the decarbonisation and expansion of the existing district heating grid – primarily by expanding the generation of deep geothermal energy – and efficient decarbonisation solutions outside district heating grid areas.
Munich hopes to learn more on the required substantial transformation of grid infrastructure that the integration of deep geothermal heat into the grid requires: converting steam network to hot water, reducing and adapting flow temperature to feed in heat from geothermal energy plants, etc. In addition, Munich aims to learn how to increase local acceptance for heating and cooling transition and increased use of geothermal energy by establishing new communication channels and participatory structures. The city will further use this project to substantiate the planning of this transformation and expansion of the district heating and cooling grid and scale up the number of connections, particularly through exchange with Rotterdam and Vienna.
