Green Potential in Power and Heat Generation: Natural Gas Consumption in Germany on the Rise
Mannheim, October 10, 2017
While the power consumption climbed to 282 billion kWh in the first half of the year – a year-on-year increase of 1.6 percent – the natural gas consumption went up 3 percent to 516 billion kWh. With this increase, the natural gas consumption followed the trend of the first half of 2016, which already saw growth of 11 percent.
Apart from the weather and the positive economic development, the latest increase was mainly caused by the increased use of natural gas for eco-friendly power and heat generation in CHP (combined heat and power) plants. This especially reflects the ongoing development of natural gas gensets and gas engines, thanks to which even complex CHP integration projects can be rolled out in existing power plants and buildings. Moreover, last year’s amendment to the German Combined Heat and Power Act (KWKG) has improved the conditions for existing CHP plants.
The MWM energy bunker in Lübeck proves that in terms of installing natural gas engines, virtually nothing is impossible.
Natural Gas-Fired MWM Gas Engine in Former Air-Raid Shelter Furnishes Evidence of MWM’s Ongoing Development
The MWM CHP (combined heat and power) plant in a former air-raid shelter in Lübeck is a good example of the technical challenges that the CHP industry is now able to solve. Though the installation of the CHP plant was not easy, it has meanwhile started to reliably produce heat and power in the former bunker with an MWM TCG 2020 V20 natural gas engine. The operators in Lübeck have thus come closer to their goal of generating about 50 percent of the power sold from eco-friendly, regenerative energy sources and energy-efficient combined heat and power generation by 2020.
