The energy self-sufficient village of Feldheim
One of the most spectacular integrated concepts for supplying businesses, private households and local government with renewable energies on a decentralised, regenerative basis was implemented in Feldheim, which belongs to Treuenbrietzen, a town in Brandenburg. The project owes its success to the excellent partnership between the municipality of Treuenbrietzen, the residents of Feldheim and the project developer, Energiequelle GmbH.
The individual households in Feldheim are supplied with electricity and heat from renewable energy power plants “on their own doorstep” via independent local grids. Energiequelle GmbH designed the various components of this concept – which includes cutting-edge, state-of-the-art wind power systems and biogas plants – installed them as turnkey systems and linked them via the new heat and power distribution system to form a regional energy supply grid.
OUR SUCCESS IN FELDHEIM
- Power supply through a wind farm with over 60 systems
- Compensation for fluctuations by means of an energy storage device
- Heat from a biogas plant
- Additional thermal energy requirements covered by a heating plant fired with woodchips and a power-to-heat plant
Reliability even under peak loads
The nearby wind farm is the backbone of the local power supply grid, whereas heat is supplied by the local biogas plant. The natural fluctuations are compensated by an energy storage system of the latest generation. A sophisticated heating plant fired with woodchips is available for additional thermal energy requirements on particularly cold days.
Independence with a private grid
What is special about the Feldheim concept are the separate grids for district heating and electricity supplies, via which the locally produced heat and electricity are fed straight to consumers. This saves costs and achieves independence from the grids of conventional power utility companies.
Financed by pooling resources
The owner of the local district heating grid is “Feldheim Energie GmbH & Co. KG”, a limited partnership formed by the connected households, enterprises and the municipality of Treuenbrietzen. The owner of the separate power grid for supplying electricity to connected consumers is “Energiequelle GmbH and Co. WP Feldheim 2006 KG”.
However, the municipality and the local residents were unable to put up the substantial investments needed to build the separate electricity and district heating grids on their own. Additional funds from the regional government of Brandenburg and from EU programmes were therefore tapped into.
Petra RichterMayor of Feldheim
