Bernried starts a new attempt to supply the village with a municipal local heating network. A consortium of bulk consumers is to be set up under the leadership of the municipality. First of all, funding opportunities should be determined, an inventory made and goals developed. The municipal council made a corresponding decision in principle on Thursday.
Time is pressing, because the high energy prices are causing problems for the companies in Bernried, as the FDP municipal councilor and co-founder of the trade association, Wolfgang Mutter, said at the meeting. According to the managing director of Hyglos GmbH, large energy consumers such as hotels or the Höhenried clinic feared “dramatic economic problems”. That’s why Bernried entrepreneurs have joined together to form a community of interests last week. As Mother calculated, the share of private households is relatively small at around five percent of the total consumption in the community. In his opinion, the initial impetus for the implementation of a sustainable energy supply through district heating must therefore come from the large consumers.
Ten years ago, the community had already planned a geothermal plant with a combined heat and power plant and district heating network. But the plans were canceled in 2014 after test drilling failed in Geretsried, just 15 kilometers away. The community now feels it is its duty to make a new move. On the one hand, with the monastery and the summer cellar, it is itself a major consumer. On the other hand, according to Mayor Georg Malterer, the municipality is responsible for services of general interest and is also entitled to submit the corresponding funding applications. It is therefore necessary for the interest group to come together under the leadership of the municipality.
An energy utilization plan was drawn up in 2013 as part of the geothermal project. Accordingly, a heating network in the town center is a good idea, as there are many large consumers there. The energy working group has worked out the first steps towards implementation in a future vision for Bernried in its application for municipal heating planning. According to the paper, in addition to the hotels, the monastery and the summer cellar, the farm could also be connected, as well as numerous listed buildings.
In the opinion of the working group, however, an investigation into which heat source is suitable is crucial. You can choose, for example, from heat pumps, solar thermal energy or a wood chip heating system. A combination of different heat sources to cover future needs would also be possible. In addition to trade, housing companies and the operators of the electricity and gas networks, citizens and building owners should also be involved in the process. Research and strategy development should be entrusted to experts. The councilors agree on that.
“It’s really urgent. The topic is burning under our nails,” Christine Philipp (BL/Greens) summed it up. Mayor Malterer was convinced that the preliminary work that had been done for the geothermal project at the time could be used when developing a strategy. However, according to him, a lot has changed in the past ten years, so that the conditions and the consumption of the individual bulk buyers would have to be queried again.