“Hot stuff!” – An aquifer heat storage for Hamburg

The SDHp2m partners Hamburg Institut and PlanEnergi have worked on a strategy to introduce renewable energies in Hamburg’s district heating system. A key element of the strategy is a heat storage for industrial waste heat and solar heat in a salty aquifer.

In a study for the City of Hamburg, the consultants have analyzed several options for the replacement of an old coal fired CHP plant for the city’s district heating system with renewable energies and waste heat (click here to read the study in German language).The study concluded that the coal fired plant could be entirely replaced by renewable and waste heat sources at competitive costs. To recover industrial waste heat and heat from a possible large SDH plant, the consultants suggest storing the surplus heat in summer in a natural aquifer. This water in this aquifer could in any case not be used as drinking water due to its high salinity.