Wood Heating & District Heating

In 2025, a new local heating network for the entire village was established. The residents formed a cooperative and built the network independently.

Additionally, the first drivable push-floor discharge system was installed here to allow simple and fast unloading.

 

Details

• Push-floor discharge system
• 2x AK boilers, each 400 kW
• Pipeline network: 5.6 km
• Heats 65% of the village (112 connections)

The residents of Hechlingen wanted to move away from fossil fuels and toward affordable energy. They formed a cooperative and built the network independently. Initially, there were 73 interested participants.

 

Details

• 105 connections (65% of all village houses)
• Construction started 06/2023 – completed 11/2024
• Quadruple filling allows truck unloading in 15 min
• 2 x 400 kW Heizomat boilers

Under the motto #DORNHAUSENGOESGREEN, the planning team started the district heating project in 2014. Numerous hours were spent finding the optimal heating system.

A mix of biogas heat and wood chips turned out to be the most economical solution. Dornhausen finally “goes GREEN” with the first green RHK-AK 500 Heizomat delivered to this model village in Middle Franconia.

 

Project

• Heating network for the village of Dornhausen, Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district

Connections

• Pipeline length: 4,776 m
• 52 house connections

Fossil fuel replaced

• Heating oil saved: approx. 90,000 liters
• CO₂ reduction: approx. 261,000 kg per year

6,600 m of heat pipelines, 98 connected buildings, 26 planned connections, 103,000 liters of buffer volume, and two Heizomat RHK-AK boilers with 400 and 500 kW. These are the figures for the Dittenheim district heating supply.

The village with 1,800 residents is located in Middle Franconia, Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district. Planning began in 2014, and the cooperative network started operation in January 2016, providing nearly the entire village with sustainable heat from wood chips and biogas.

 

Project

• Heating network with connected biogas plant

Connections

• 98 buildings connected
• 26 buildings planned

Fossil fuel replaced

• Approx. 96,000 liters of heating oil per year
• Approx. 278,400 kg CO₂ per year

Roland Grienberger is happy to drive through Pollenfeld without seeing any smoking chimneys. Grienberger operates a biogas plant and a Heizomat RHK-AK 500 wood chip boiler.

He supplies 53 households in Pollenfeld with heat through a local heating network. The business evolved from traditional farming to energy production, and we are proud to be part of this project.

 

Project

• Heating network with connected biogas plant

Connections

• 60 buildings connected

Fossil fuel replaced

• Approx. 90,000 liters of heating oil per year
• Approx. 261,000 kg CO₂ per year

Martin Wecker’s heating network in Merching benefits the community, customers, and the environment. It relies on sustainable, environmentally friendly energy and high efficiency, heated by a Heizomat RHK-AK 200.

 

Project

• Heating network for the village of Merching
• Pipeline length: 359 m

Connections

• 5 buildings connected
• 2 buildings planned

Fossil fuel replaced

• Approx. 27,000 liters of heating oil per year
• Approx. 78,300 kg CO₂ per year

While pipelines for the Nord Stream gas pipeline were being laid in the Baltic Sea, Dürrenzimmern, a district of Nördlingen, pursued a different idea: CO₂-neutral heating with wood chips for the entire village.

The project began in 2013 with the installation of two Heizomat RHK-AK 400 boilers and became one of the first wood-chip-based heating networks in Germany.

 

Project

• Heating network for the village of Dürrenzimmern

Connections

• 70 buildings connected

Fossil fuel replaced

• Approx. 178,200 liters of heating oil per year
• Approx. 516,780 kg CO₂ per year