The joint geothermal project of the municipalities of Aschheim, Feldkirchen and Kirchheim is to be further expanded in the coming years. As the Kirchheim municipal council unanimously decided on Tuesday evening, the customer connection capacity should increase to 100 megawatts by 2030. A similar decision is to be taken in the other municipalities.
The background is the enormous increase in the number of households interested in a geothermal connection. In particular due to the energy crisis, which has worsened in recent months, many would like to switch to geothermal energy. As the intermunicipal AFK Geothermie GmbH states, no further inquiries for heating network connections can currently be accepted, so an expansion is urgently needed. Another goal is the transformation of the heat supply: According to Kirchheim Mayor Maximilian Böltl (CSU), around 71 percent of the heat currently comes from geothermal energy, and this value should increase towards 100 percent in the future.
Since it was founded by the three municipalities of Aschheim, Feldkirchen and Kirchheim and the start of operations in 2009, AFK has continuously expanded its network. According to its own information, the company supplies 1,100 households as well as commercial enterprises and municipal buildings in the three communities with geothermal heat via around 80 kilometers of district heating routes. There is currently a double borehole on the premises of the AFK headquarters in Aschheim, through which the thermal water is pumped out of the depths and, after the heat has been extracted, fed back into the earth. As Kirchheim’s mayor Böltl recently announced, the drilling of a second doublet is under discussion.