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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
World’s largest heat pumps for Danish district heating plant
11/10/2023
News
A new district heating plant in Aalborg is expected to cut the Danish city’s CO2 emissions by 160,000 t/y.
Danish utility company Aalborg Forsyning has commissioned MAN Energy Solutions to supply a turnkey heat-generation system with an overall heating capacity of 132 MW, featuring three MAN heat pumps. Each unit has a capacity of 44 MW, making them the largest heat pump units ever to be installed in a district heating plant worldwide, according to the company. The plant will supply around 550,000 MWh of heat annually and account for almost one-third of the heat production in Aalborg, Denmark’s third-largest municipality.
The district heating plant’s location on the northern bank of the local Limfjord Strait will enable the use of seawater as a heat source. The heat pumps will use electricity from Aalborg Forsyning renewable energy sources to raise the water’s temperature from a range of 1–15°C to 98°C, which is the temperature used in the district heating network.
The heat-pump plant is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 160,000 t/y compared to the city’s current, coal-fired power plant that is scheduled for closure in 2028.
Uwe Lauber, CEO of MAN Energy Solutions, says: ‘In many regards, heat and cold generation has thus far been a blind spot for the energy transition. This major project demonstrates how renewable energy can be harnessed outside of the power grid to heat homes and factory facilities. Going forward, such sector-coupling will be essential to progress in global efforts to reduce carbon emissions.’
MAN Energy Solutions is also installing a 60 MW heat-pump system in the Danish port of Esbjerg, which will be powered by offshore wind farms and use heat from the adjacent Wadden Sea as its energy source.
