Steinbeis experts help local community develop an energy project to establish a sustainable hydrogen cycle with electric vehicles and community heating
Germany is committed to achieving net zero by 2045. But this target comes with challenges, not only for big cities and corporations but also for many local communities. Located in the district of Biberach in southeast Baden-Württemberg, Berkheim is a municipality with a population of around 3,300 that has ambitious community heating goals. The town council’s renewable electricity and hydrogen production project could become a blueprint for local communities wishing to make a successful transition to sustainable energy. Heinz Pöhler and his team at the Steinbeis Consulting Center 4IES investigated the project’s feasibility.
Manfred Saitner is the treasurer of the municipality of Berkheim, an office he combines with his role as chief executive of the municipality’s community heating and infrastructure company, Berkheim GmbH. Until now, the ten GWh or so of energy needed to meet the community’s heating demand was provided by a biogas combined heat and power plant and natural gas. But Saitner has ambitious plans: “For a long time now, I’ve wanted Berkheim to have a carbon-neutral heating supply”.
Not content with that, the small town on federal highway 312 also wants to promote sustainable economic development. To this end, the town council wants to attract businesses to the recently designated industrial park that, as well as creating jobs, helps to address the impacts of the high local traffic volume on the town’s residents. The plan is to locate a logistics company there with a renewable hydrogen filling and EV charging station. The electricity would be generated locally, reducing the strain on the existing power grid. The local haulage and construction firms also stand to benefit ahead of the EU ban on the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles that is due to come into effect in 2035. Hydrogen and electricity from the local filling/charging station would replace diesel fuel.
The logistics center and operation of the filling/charging station would generate business revenue and create new jobs for the community. The power generated from solar panels located on the logistics buildings’ large free surfaces could be used locally to charge EVs or produce hydrogen. This would mean that less land would be needed to produce renewable energy and would also reduce the strain on the power grid.
If these plans prove to be technically and economically viable, Berkheim could become a trailblazer for local communities wishing to make a successful transition to sustainable energy. This is where Steinbeis Entrepreneur Heinz Pöhler and his team at the Steinbeis Consulting Center 4IES come in. The experts were engaged to carry out a feasibility study investigating the economic viability of local hydrogen production, the sale of renewable energy, and its incorporation into the local heating network.
Feasibility study simulates demand and calculates costs
The project started with a detailed assessment of the status quo. This included the heating, electricity and fuel demand of existing and planned businesses in the immediate vicinity, fuel demand for the busy B312 highway, and heating demand for Berkheim’s existing community heating network.
Based on a traffic count and various studies, the team also projected electricity and hydrogen demand for local long-distance traffic in the target year of 2030. “Following in-depth discussions with the logistics and construction firms regarding the expected technological developments, availability and changeover strategy, we were ultimately able to calculate how demand for the additional renewable electricity and hydrogen will develop”, explains Heinz Pöhler.
A scenario for the evolution of heating demand was also produced as part of the project. Hourly electricity, heating and hydrogen load profiles were developed and agreed with the local council members involved in the project. The Steinbeis experts then used the calculated and simulated demand to determine the optimal electrolyzer and compressor size.
The projected electricity and hydrogen demand was used to simulate the optimal energy mix for supplying electricity to the electrolyzer and EV charging station. While wind and solar power would both be perfectly suitable for operating the electrolyzer and EV charging station, Berkheim lies in the Iller valley, where there is very little wind. Consequently, wind power was ruled out from the start and the focus placed on calculating the optimal PV installation size.
In order to prevent load peaks associated with EV charging and to optimize the charging station electricity costs, Heinz Pöhler and his team investigated the optimal battery storage system size based on charging behavior.
The simulation revealed that battery storage has a positive impact on both the cost of electricity for the charging station and the cost of producing hydrogen.
One further advantage is that the strain on the distribution grid is reduced, while the waste heat from the hydrogen production process is also used. The Steinbeis Consulting Center produced a waste heat plan to ensure optimal utilization based on the projected heating demand.
The current heating network was built up over the course of many years. Its demand for 75°C heat can only be met with the aid of the existing biogas CHP plant, a high-temperature heat pump, and by using the waste heat from the compressor. With this mix, the levelized cost of heat from the hydrogen process was less than 1 ct/kWh. Taking into consideration the financing costs, regulatory factors (such as the grid fee exemption) and the greenhouse gas quotas for bringing renewable fuels onto the market, the cost of producing hydrogen came to approximately 5 to 7 euros/kg. This low cost was made possible thanks to the establishment of a virtual energy account or “balancing group” incorporating the investments in local renewable energy, hydrogen production and short-term storage, and the hydrogen filling and EV charging station.
What next?
If implemented, the project would deliver sustainable and affordable community heating for Berkheim. Even before the feasibility study had been fully completed, it became apparent that the low-cost hydrogen and the project’s economic success could only be achieved if all the stakeholder companies worked together. This led the town council, local construction and logistics firms, and the electrolyzer and charging/filling station operators to form a syndicate with the aim of implementing the project by no later than 2030.
Contact
Heinz Pöhler (author)
Steinbeis Entrepreneur
Steinbeis Consulting Center 4IES (Laichingen, Ulm)
www.steinbeis-kne.de