Project
"Six drums, each with 205 metres of CALPEX PUR-KING district heating pipes, were delivered from Kleindöttingen to France at the beginning of February. Special transport was required for the 3.8 metre high pipe drums, each weighing 910 kg," says Martin Rigaud, Head of District Heating at BRUGG Pipes.
In mid-January, the Danish Technological Institute (DTI) recognised the type of pipe supplied as the pipe with the lowest heat loss in the world for the 7th time in a row. ‘The length of the pipe systems supplied in one piece and the customised branch pieces were also decisive factors in awarding the contract to BRUGG Pipes,’ adds Rigaud. The pipes were laid and installed by the French company Atlantique Travaux Publics (ATP).
In Les Sables d'Olonne, around 100 kilometres south of Nantes, construction machinery is at work, mainly excavators, digging trenches several hundred metres long under the astonished gaze of the local population. Similar work was carried out 25 years ago: Back then, the aim was to bury a system of drainage pipes to facilitate the reconstruction of the beach and limit its erosion.
Before this drained water is discharged into the sea, it is now used to feed a heat pump system, a process known as thalassothermal energy. The French company ECOPLAGE conceived and supported the project under the Enerplage® brand as the main contractor from the outset.
The heated fresh water is transported in a network separate from the seawater and redistributed to the city centre. ‘With water heated to 7°C, we produce water heated to 80°C and therefore imagine being able to release 1,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere per year,’ explains the mayor and president of the Les Sables d'Olonne agglomeration, Yannick Moreau, to France Bleu.
"There were already drainage pipes under the beach at Les Sables d'Olonne that had been pumping seawater for decades to keep the sand on the beach. We are using the water from the drainage and the pumps that already exist on the coast to generate energy with a heat pump to heat these buildings."
BRUGG Pipes recently delivered six pipe drums to Les Sables d'Olonne, France, in a special transport. The pipe system with the lowest heat loss in the world is being used on the French coast for an innovative district heating network using energy from the sea. A 25-year-old drainage system laid the foundation for today's district heating network.
According to a study by Aalborg University, district heating networks should cover around 48 per cent of the EU's heating requirements by 2050 in order to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Combined heat and power plants and cogeneration units often serve as heat suppliers in district heating networks. What many people don't realise: Sea or ocean water could also be an important source of energy in the future, as the potential for clean, local and inexhaustible energy is enormous.
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