The Elbe River is set to help supply households in Dresden with district heating and replace fossil fuels. To this end, the energy provider Sachsenenergie is moving forward with plans to build a river water heat pump.
The investment costs for the 50-megawatt plant are estimated at around 92 million euros. A site below the Marienbrücke is being considered because it is close to both the river and the district heating network, the energy supplier reported.
The plant could go into operation in 2031. It is designed to extract heat from the river water and feed it into the district heating network, officials said. To do this, the pump would draw about 2.5 cubic meters of water per second from the river. This water would then flow back into the Elbe about three degrees cooler. This would have no impact on the river’s overall temperature, officials said.
This could generate around 300,000 megawatt-hours of heat annually. That would be enough to supply up to 45,000 households. According to the information provided, about half of Dresden’s households currently use district heating and consume 1.7 million megawatt-hours of heat per year.
