Germany:

German Geothermal Greenhouse Almost in Production (horti daily)

Ground-breaking at the Kirchweidach Greenhouse
Project (Courtesy GEOenergie Kirchweidach GmbH)

Construction on a 11.5 ha tomato greenhouse in the German town of Kirchweidach is going as planned. The installation will be connected to a geothermal well later this year.

The definitive power plant of GEOenergie Kirchweidach GmbH, supplying both heat and electricity, will only be ready in 2015, but the end of this year heat will already be supplied to the greenhouses.

This is done with a smaller pump and a heat exchange system with a capacity of 40 litres of water per second. The water temperature is 125 degrees and the water comes from 3,400 meters depth. This will be more than enough to heat both the greenhouse and the municipal network.

The first tomato plants are expected to arrive in the nursery early next year. Every year, thanks to the geothermal plant, more than 4.2 million litres of fuel oil and thus 8.4 million tons of CO2 is saved.