Deutsche ErdWärme Joins Energy Web, Brings Carbon-free Geothermal Energy to Germany’s Energy Transition
Karlsruhe, Germany and Zug, Switzerland — 18 November 2020 — Today Energy Web announced that Deutsche ErdWärme (DEW) has become its newest member. Founded in 2015, DEW has quickly become Germany’s largest private developer of geothermal energy plants, spanning heat, electricity, and combined heat-and-power projects.
Earlier this year, Clean Energy Wire called geothermal energy “Germany’s largely untapped renewable heat source.” Despite strong potential, geothermal has to date contributed only small percentages to the country’s heating and electricity needs. For example, deep geothermal contributes just 0.1% to heating and cooling, while shallow geothermal adds only another 1.2%. But with DEW at the forefront, that all could change.
Germany has the potential to increase deep geothermal 100x by 2050, from 1.2 TWh of heat generation today to more than 100 TWh in three decades. Meanwhile, analysis from think tank Agora Energiewende forecasts that the number of shallow geothermal units could rise from 420,000 today to 2 million or more by 2030.
DEW’s geothermal development is focused on the Upper Rhine Valley in southwest Germany, along the border with France, a region with some of the best geothermal potential not only in Germany, but also all of mainland Europe. In nearby Bavaria, the government is looking to geothermal to help meet its ambitious climate targets; Munich is looking to geothermal to make its entire heating system carbon-neutral by 2040.
“Geothermal energy is a unique renewable energy as it provides baseload energy. Our plants can both produce heat and electricity and are therefore highly flexible,” said Herbert Pohl, PhD, CEO of Deutsche ErdWärme. “This flexibility is something we also expect and need from a decentralized future energy system. In order for this to succeed, we want to be actively involved in the solutions and see Energy Web as an excellent platform.”
In fact, a recently released study from Germany’s Federal Environment Agency confirms exactly that. It sees geothermal as an important source of zero-carbon, flexible energy to complement variable renewables such as wind and solar.
“Our mission is to accelerate a low-carbon, customer-centric electricity system with blockchain and other decentralized technologies. We have seen again and again the need for flexibility to be a key part of the future electricity system,” explained Jesse Morris, CCO of Energy Web. “Many times ‘flexibility’ translates into battery energy storage, but geothermal has tremendous potential to support wind, solar, and other renewable energies. We’re proud to welcome Deutsche ErdWärme into our ecosystem.”
Today’s announcement comes on the heels of several major developments in Germany and neighboring countries. Last month, Energy Web announced it had been selected by DENA, the Germany Energy Agency, to lead on development of a blockchain-based identity register for energy assets. Weeks earlier Energy Web announced a multi-year strategic partnership with longtime member Elia Group, whose subsidiaries include transmission system operators in Belgium and Germany. And at the beginning of this year, Energy Web unveiled a partnership with Austrian Power Grid to use a blockchain-based solution to tap into distributed energy resources for that country’s grid flexibility market.
DEW’s portfolio includes three development projects in Graben-Neudorf, Waghäusel, and another one close to the company’s headquarters in Karlsruhe. Deutsche ErdWärme is actively working to expand its portfolio.
About Deutsche ErdWärme
Deutsche ErdWärme is Germany’s largest private developer of geothermal energy plants. The company, founded in 2015, is based in Karlsruhe in the heart of one of the most promising regions for the development of deep geothermal energy in Germany — the Upper Rhine Valley. Equipped with several mining permits, Deutsche Erdwärme intends to realise up to twelve geothermal energy projects in the coming years and thus will contribute to a decentralised, reliable supply of carbon-free heat and electricity for the region in the near future.
The team of Deutsche ErdWärme consists of various experts who have many years of experience in their fields and cover all relevant areas of project development of geothermal energy plants: geology, drilling technology, power plant construction and project management. Over this the company relies on open and transparent communication throughout the entire development process in order to achieve the highest possible acceptance for its geothermal energy plants.
About Energy Web
Energy Web is a global, member-driven nonprofit accelerating a low-carbon, customer-centric electricity system by unleashing the potential of blockchain and decentralized technologies. EW focuses on our open-source, decentralized, digital technology stack — the Energy Web Decentralized Operating System (EW-DOS) — to enable any device, owned by any customer, to participate in any energy market.
EW launched the Energy Web Chain, the world’s first enterprise-grade, public blockchain tailored to the energy sector and the anchor of the broader EW-DOS technology stack. As the industry’s leading energy blockchain partner and most-respected voice of authority on energy blockchain, EW has also fostered the world’s largest energy blockchain ecosystem, comprising utilities, grid operators, renewable energy developers, corporate energy buyers, IoT / telecom leaders, and others. More than 30 of those companies host validator nodes for the EW Chain.
For more, please visit https://energyweb.org.
CONTACT
Peter Bronski, Energy Web
+1.201.575.5545 | peter.bronski@energyweb.org
