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Supplying Frankfurt Airport with renewable energies
Fraport AG, the owner and manager of Frankfurt Airport (FRA), and D&S Geo Innogy GmbH, a joint venture of RWE Innogy GmbH and Daldrup &Sohne AG, launched a joint venture on October 27 for exploring and developing the potential of the Walldorf deep-earth geothermal field near the southern side of FRA. If the exploration is successful, the partners will construct a hybrid power plant, which for the first time will make combined use of geothermal power and biogas to produce electricity and heat. The partners signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) today at Frankfurt Airport confirming these plans. D&S Geo Innogy will hold 75 percent in this joint venture and Fraport AG 25 percent.

“We are proud to be able to supply Germany’s top hub in international air transportation with renewable energy in the future. Numerous tests will be required before we have reached that stage. However, we are confident that we will be able to supply part of Frankfurt Airport’s heating requirements with geothermal heat, especially because of our new system concept. This will serve as a beacon project for Germany in the area of renewable energies and will attract a high degree of international recognition,” explained Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt, CEO of RWE Innogy.

Fraport AG executive board chairman Dr. Stefan Schulte described the signing of the MoU as “a further milestone in the implementation of Fraport’s sustainability program.” “With this initiative, our efforts to achieve substantial CO2 reductions at Frankfurt Airport – for example through the technological and structural modernization of our terminal facilities and the use of electric vehicles on the apron – will gain a new quality,” emphasized Schulte. The use of biogas and geothermal heating for FRA’s passenger terminals alone would reduce carbon dioxide emissions immensely. “Therefore, we have a great ecological and economic interest in completing the upcoming tests swiftly and thoroughly and, hopefully, with good results,” explained Fraport’s CEO.

Silke Lautenschlager, environment minister for the State of Hesse, Germany, stressed that Frankfurt Airport has great potential for developing flagship projects in the area of climate protection and renewable energies. The use of electric vehicles and utilization of biogas and geothermal heat contribute considerably to climate protection and sustainable energy supply. “The planned geothermal/biogas project will secure the Frankfurt business location and jobs. This demonstrates once again that ecology and economy are not a contradiction,” emphasized Lautenschlager. “The Hesse government’s goal is to raise the share of renewable energies in ultimate energy consumption to 20 percent by 2020. Therefore, we welcome the Fraport AG and D&S Geo Innogy GmbH project to supply Frankfurt Airport with environmentally-friendly electricity and heat,” emphasized the environmental minister.

Geologically, the Walldorf geothermal field is part of the Upper Rhine Valley, which offers particularly favorable conditions for geothermal energy development. In the coming months seismic studies to be conducted on the approximately 100 square kilometer area shall reveal the geothermal potential. Following positive completion of the preliminary tests, the joint venture partners together will drill boreholes to a depth of 2,400 meters to construct the geothermal power plant. Plans call for the construction of at least one hybrid power plant to generate electricity and heat using geothermal energy in combination with biogas. Through the combined use of geothermal energy and biogas the power plant will provide for highly efficient base-load electricity generation. The biogas is produced by RWE at its plant in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, where biomass fuel is refined to natural gas quality. From there the biogas is supplied to Fraport AG via the gas distribution system.

The geothermal plant will be implemented and operated by D&S Geo Innogy, an independent project company established in January 2009. Vicky Karantzavelou - Thursday, October 29, 2009