Climate positivity, here we come!

BayernLB has concluded the financing of a heat pump for MVV Energie AG, one of the leading energy companies in Germany. The pump will be used to generate district heating at a large power plant in the city of Mannheim. Programme loans from KfW in furtherance of environmentally friendly heat generation from renewable energy sources were integrated into the financing.

As a power-to-heat plant, the pump will tap into unused thermal energy potential, thereby helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With a thermal capacity of around 20 MW and the Rhine river as its energy source, it will be one of the largest river heat pumps in Europe. The thermal energy from the extracted Rhine water will be brought, with the help of electricity, to a temperature level that can be used for district heating and then fed into the district heating network.

The heat pump, which is scheduled for completion in 2023, is part of the Reallabore der Energiewende, a regulatory sandbox competition run by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, which is subsidising the investment, along with the research slated for the first three years of operation and the accompanying project research. MVV is receiving a 45% subsidy on the amount that it is investing more in the plant than in gas boiler technology. The company’s long-term goal is to replace the heat generated by the large power plant’s coal-fired units with the product “district heating” in an ecologically and financially viable manner

Sebastian Schenk, who heads BayernLB’s Grid Operators & Utilities Sector, is a proponent of the energy provider’s initiative: “It is precisely projects and initiatives like these that, through a profitable combination of research & practice and entrepreneurial gumption, create win-win situations – for the region, for society and for the environment."

MVV is a pioneer in the energy transition and one of the world’s top four energy companies in terms of sustainability. It has pledged to become climate-neutral by 2040 and then to be among the first climate-positive energy companies in Germany. In pursuit of this, it is staying focused on the energy reform as it applies to thermal energy and electricity and the associated expansion of renewable energy sources, as well as on green products and solutions for its customers.