Construction work begins at Gelting excavation site with new technology

Geretsried – Recently, Robert Strobinger, Managing Director of Enex, and Managing Director of Eavor Andreas Gahr answered questions about the Gelting geothermal project.

After two wells failed in 2013 and 2017, there is now a new attempt with a different approach.

Using the “closed-loop technology” developed by the Canadian company Eavor, four heat exchangers, each with twelve lateral arms, will be drilled to a depth of approximately five kilometers, which will communicate with each other after seven and a half kilometers. “Each arm has to meet on an A4 sheet of paper, and that’s the difficulty,” explained Robert Straubinger, Enex’s managing director. According to his assessment, the “closed-loop technology” can be used in 98 percent of all regions in Germany.

After the groundbreaking ceremony for two drilling sites in Götete Breitenbach in October 2022, extensive construction work has now begun. Andreas Jaher, managing director of Eavor, expects that after the completion of the two drilling sites in 2024, the power plant can be commissioned. He has already reached agreements with Geretsrieder Stadtwerke regarding the priority of building the district heating network. Ideally, many towns and communities in the area could be provided with heat or electricity.

€70,000 per day: costs for a day of digging in Gelting

Straubinger assumes that the average value of production is about 15 megawatts per day, and the maximum production is 65 megawatts. The investment costs are enormous. When asked by a visitor, Straubinger revealed that the power plant alone cost 30 million euros to generate electricity. For the construction of the line, one million euros per kilometer is expected. The Canadian company Eavor is investing a total of about 350 million euros. According to Jahar, “every day of digging costs around 70,000 euros.”

In the fall of 2024, the first “heat cassette” should be dug in and played the first of four episodes in total. About 40 visitors followed the invitation to the information event for free voters, including the mayor of Orasburg, Moritz Sable, as well as members of the city council and municipalities from Geritsried, Münzing and Wolfratshausen.