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Project Report
Europe ’ s most powerful district heating heat pump
Ceremonial opening of the large heat pump : from left to right Peter Hanke ( City Councillor ), Michael Ludwig ( Mayor ), Jürgen Czernohorszky ( City Councillor ) and Michael Strebl ( Chairman of the Wien Energie Management Board ). Photo credit : Wien Energie / Johannes Zinner .
Wien Energie has been constructing the most powerful and environmentally friendly large heat pump plants in Europe next to the ebswien sewage treatment plant for the past one and a half years , which utilizes waste heat from a sewage treatment plant . The construction of the first expansion stage of the plant is completed , and now Wien Energie is commencing the commissioning of the large-scale climate protection project .
Text & images by Wien Energie
“ Vienna will be climate-neutral by 2040 ! The heat pump plant at the sewage treatment plant is a major milestone on this path . As a city , we are adjusting the major levers and utilizing every renewable heat source available to us . With this new plant from Wien Energie alone , we can already supply up to 56,000 Viennese households with green district heating in the first expansion stage . With our heat pumps , we are pioneers throughout Europe ,” says Mayor Michael Ludwig . The plant utilizes the purified wastewater from the adjacent ebswien sewage treatment plant for heat generation . The heat in the wastewater , which has so far flowed unused into the Danube Canal , can thus be used sensibly . “ We utilize heat that is available and use it to heat the homes of the Viennese in an environmentally friendly manner . ‘ Out with gas ’ is not just a headline for us but a concrete action mandate . With flagship projects like the large heat pump , we are implementing the heat transition in Vienna step by step ,” says Finance and Economic Affairs City Councillor Peter Hanke .
One hundred percent regional and renewable energy With electricity from the nearby Danube power plant Freudenau and the waste heat from the sewage treatment plant ’ s wastewater , Wien Energie can operate the large heat pump entirely from renewable energies . However , at the sewage treatment plant , not only the waste heat from the wastewater is used to generate sustainable energy . “ In our climate action plan , we have set the goal of making Vienna climate-neutral by 2040 . For this goal , we are pulling out all the stops . The sewage treatment plant in Simmering is a showcase example : here , wastewater , sewage sludge , hydropower , and solar energy are used to generate clean electricity and environmentally friendly heat ,” emphasizes Climate City Councillor Jürgen Czernohorszky . One of the essential levers for Vienna becoming climateneutral by 2040 lies in the heat sector , as it is responsible for around 40 percent of the CO2 emissions in the federal capital . Wien Energie is gradually converting district heating , a little over a half of which is currently generated from fossil fuels , to sustainable sources . For this purpose , the company already presented a concrete roadmap in 2021 . The large heat pump at the sewage treatment plant is a significant step in its implementation . “ We are writing a piece of heat transition history for Vienna here . With the first expansion stage of the large heat pump , we are increasing the share of renewable district heating by around 7 %. We will double the output once fully expanded and will be able to supply over 100,000 Viennese households with climate-neutral
50 Heat Exchanger World June 2024 www . heat-exchanger-world . com