50Hertz Transmission is working with Stadtwerke Rostock to turn wind energy generated in northern Germany that cannot be consumed or transported south into heat.
If the wind farms in the north generate a lot of electricity and it cannot be consumed on site or transported to the south, turbines often have to be shut down and the operators compensated for the losses, the partners said.
In the future surplus electricity will be used for the heat supply of the Rostock public utility company Stadtwerke Rostock.
The two companies are building a 20MW power-to-heat plant in Rostock’s Marienehe district.
The system will be combined with a heat storage system to be built on the same site.
Construction is scheduled to start later this year.
Stadtwerke Rostock chief executive Oliver Brunnich said: “The construction of the PtH plant is one of the building blocks to achieve the climate protection goals of the Hanseatic and university city of Rostock, which are formulated in the master plan for 100% climate protection.”
50Hertz managing director markets and system operations Dirk Biermann said: “Economically and ecologically, the motto must be ‘use instead of downsizing’.
“The conversion of green electricity into heat for heating or for hot water supply is a sensible alternative to switching off, in order to exploit renewable resources even when there are transport bottlenecks in the electricity transmission network.”