Johnson Controls, a provider of building technology, software and services, is supplying the municipality of Neustadt in Holstein, Germany, with a state-of-the-art heat pump that will use water from the Baltic Sea to generate green energy.
The system will provide part of the heat supply to a new district in the city’s harbour via its own heating network. This seawater solution is the first of its kind in Germany on this scale and represents a model for the transformation of heat supply.
“Heat pumps are a crucial technology in the energy transition and provide an efficient and sustainable alternative to gas and oil heating,” says David Emin, General Manager for Johnson Controls, Germany.
“Our cooperation with the Neustadt in Holstein municipality shows we can use the technology to harness one of the world’s most abundant and natural resources. We are proud to bring our expertise to this innovative project that is setting an example for carbon neutrality in Europe and beyond.”
Johnson Controls is providing its SABROE DualPAC heat pump – a two-stage heat pump that features a modular system to enable high temperature lifts – ideal for use in district heating applications. It uses sea water to generate a heating output of up to 700 kW. During the winter months when the water is colder, it will extract around 500 kW of heat from the water, which is raised to a higher temperature using electrical energy and then fed into the new district heating network. At peak times, it will be supplemented by heat from a nearby waste incineration plant and a heat storage facility.
The DualPAC heat pump, manufactured at Johnson Controls’ plant in Denmark, is at the heart of a pioneering project by the Neustadt municipality and is being funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection.
“The seawater heat pump is the essential element of our climate-friendly heat supply concept,” remarks Thomas Anthoni, Project Manager for Heating at the Neustadt in Holstein municipal utility company. “With this solution, we are implementing a flagship project for the energy transition.”
Most of the world’s heating needs today are met with direct fossil fuel combustion. To decarbonise buildings and maintain a reliable grid, electrifying these systems with heat pumps is key. They use one third of the energy of conventional heating systems and can generate three to eight times as much energy as they consume.
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