The project “cold local heat” from SGL Group and the municipality Meitingen is meanwhile established to a great extent. The goal is to feed a housing development area near the Meitingen site with energy coming from the cooling water of the productions of SGL Group and Showa Denko Carbon Division (formally Business Unit PP of SGL Group). Now, the project has been awarded as lead project of the KUMAS environmental network and received by far the highest number of votes.
Dr. Markus Partik, site manager of SGL Group in Meitingen: “We are very glad to be able to contribute to resource protection on site by using the thermal energy of our cooling water. The award is a great prize for all project partners: SGL Group, Showa Denko and the municipality Meitingen.”
Temperatures of up to 3,000°C are possible in the high-temperature processes in the productions of the plant. Water is used to cool down the products. This water warms up to about 30°C in this process and is then supplied to the housing development area via a pipeline system. In the housing area, the energy from the cooling water is used to generate warm water and, if necessary, the higher temperatures to heat the apartments with the help of heat pumps.
By signing the contract in May 2017, SGL Group and Showa Denko voluntarily agreed to supply the cooling water free of charge for 20 years. Each hour, 40 m3 of cooling water are fed into the pipeline. Summed up for a year, this results in a maximum of 1.5 million kilowatt hours of energy – which is equivalent to approx. 150.000 liters of heating oil. Subsequently, the low-energy, cooled-down water is led back to the plant and can be used for cooling again – and the cycle starts again.