As of: March 30, 2024, 8:11 a.m
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
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Converting our industry and energy production to climate neutrality will be a Herculean task. Large heat pumps offer a lot of untapped potential, as an example from Italy shows.
Brescia – Why many small heat pumps when one large one can do so much more? In Denmark, for example, which tackled the heating transition much earlier than Germany, there is the world's largest heat pump, which supplies 100,000 people with heat via a district heating network. This technology also offers potential for Germany, but it still has to be exploited. An example of what this could look like is provided by a heat pump project in a steelworks in Brescia, Italy, which supplies several thousand households there.
The ORI Martin steelworks in Brescia has had a large heat pump from Turboden installed, which supplies thousands of households with heat. © Turboden
Brescia: Large heat pump in steelworks supplies thousands of households with district heating
All over Europe people are now racking their brains over how to achieve the energy transition - it's not just about environmental protection and sustainability, but also about independence from other world powers such as Russia. Large heat pumps are a technology that can help with this - which is why there is a gold rush atmosphere at Turboden in Brescia, northern Italy. The company, which belongs to the Japanese Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group, actually produces turbines and has now entered the large heat pump business.
They implemented their first project on their doorstep - for the ORI Martin steelworks in Brescia, which had a large heat pump from Turboden installed. It shows how the huge devices can be used to generate energy in industry. The heat from the cooling of the steel production process is used for district heating using a large heat pump instead of being “wasted”, i.e. dissipated via cooling towers. It has been in operation since last year and supplies 3,500 households that receive district heating from the local energy supplier. According to the owners of ORI Martin, the energy is sold to the supplier “at a very low price”. In addition, 5,000 tons of CO₂ are saved every year.
The idea of using the waste heat from the steelworks for the local district heating network is part of the efforts of the steelworks owners to produce more sustainably. For a steelworks - a very polluting industry - this is of course a mammoth task, even if, like most Italian steelworks, it is not powered by coal, but electrically. There are historical reasons for this: unlike Germany, Italy has hardly any coal deposits - but can use hydropower for electricity in the north of the country. In addition, ORI Martin uses steel scrap for the production of structural steel.
Sustainability is important at the ORI Martin steelworks in Brescia. © ORI Martin
“When you deal with sustainability, you have to think long-term”
Now the heat pump has been added – the total cost of the investment: 6.5 million euros. There was some help from the European Union and the Italian government, but the company had to bear the main costs. Sustainability manager Carolina de Miranda, whose family owns the company in the fourth generation, assumes that it will take around ten years for the heat pump to pay off.
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The ORI Martin steelworks is operated electrically. © ORI Martin
“When you deal with sustainability, you have to think long-term,” she says in an interview with
Ippen.Media
. The main reason was not financial, “but rather that we can help our community, our city. We want to strengthen our image because we are a large company in the center of the city. We work every day to become more sustainable and find new solutions to decarbonize.”
Millions for sustainability and good neighbors? Anyone wondering about this just needs to take a look at the south of Italy: a scandal has been raging there for years involving the port city of Taranto and the neighboring steelworks, which is blamed for the increased mortality rate there. This got so bad that a few years ago the European Court of Human Rights condemned Italy for not adequately protecting the population around the Taranto plant. Apparently environmental and safety standards have not been met for decades.
Industry in Europe must become climate neutral
The steel industry in particular could use more sustainability. And if industry in Europe is to decarbonise sufficiently over the next few decades as part of the “Green Deal”, not only steel manufacturers but also many other industries, such as cement manufacturers, will face major challenges. In addition, it is unlikely that they can achieve climate neutrality without massive support.
Projects like a large heat pump are a good way to become more sustainable. ORI Martin wants to be an example for other companies that could use their waste heat, for example to generate energy for district heating. “I think we are the first in Europe to carry out this type of project. But I am convinced that there are many other companies in Italy, in Europe, in the world that can use this type of large heat pump,” says de Miranda.
Turboden: Heat pump manufacturer in a gold rush mood
And Germany? Heat pump manufacturer Turboden believes there is a lot of potential here too. There are therefore discussions with many municipal utilities there - especially in Bavaria and along the Rhine. The hope is for numerous orders: the market is growing so much that we will have more problems meeting demand than fearing competition, says Paolo Bertuzzi, CEO and Managing Director of Turboden, to
Ippen.Media
. For Bertuzzi, large heat pumps are not a short-term trend, but a sustainable development that focuses primarily on long-term customer relationships.
Turboden is already not unknown in Germany: The Italians supplied the turbines for the new Geretsried geothermal power plant near Munich, on which great hopes rest - namely to make Germany's energy production environmentally friendly, sustainable and independent with similar projects.
Large heat pumps in Germany: Lots of unused potential
Large heat pumps could also play a major role in this: by 2045, these could ensure 70 percent of the district heating supply in Germany and thus replace a large part of natural gas, according to an analysis by the think tank Agora Energiewende from 2023. So far there are at least 30 large heat pumps in Germany with a total output of 60 megawatts. The most famous is probably the huge river heat pump in Mannheim, which has been supplying 3,500 households since last year.
But many opportunities still remain unused: In addition to regulatory obstacles, this is also due to the slow expansion of the electricity networks, high electricity prices and fixed network fees, criticized the mechanical engineering association VDMA and the Association of Municipal Companies (VKU) at the “Large Heat Pump Forum”, which was only held in February became. In addition, large heat pumps in Germany cannot currently be operated economically without targeted subsidies, according to the
Tagesspiegel
at the forum.