Climate-friendly heat: Prenzlau invites citizens to get involved!

Climate-friendly heat: Prenzlau invites citizens to get involved!

The city of Prenzlau has taken an important step towards climate-friendly energy supply. How NNN reports, the municipality is starting municipal heat planning, which is considered crucial for climate protection and future energy supply. The heat planning documents will be available to citizens for inspection until December 2, 2025. This means that everyone who is interested has the opportunity to find out more and get involved.

The Prenzlau public utilities had already provided information about the transformation of the district heating network last year and particularly focused on the expansion of geothermal energy. In the future, the hot thermal water from a borehole from 1989, which is 1000 meters deep and 44 degrees warm, will be used to operate large heat pumps. This decision is based on a former geothermal plant from the GDR era that was shut down after reunification. The municipal utilities expect this step not only to provide environmentally friendly heat supply, but also to support 90% of the transformation costs through the early creation of the heat plan.

Citizen participation

Citizens are actively invited to participate and can submit their comments in writing or by email. If you have any questions, the city and district development department is available by telephone. Thermal planning is not just an internal process; it also offers owners of private homes and apartment buildings the opportunity to consider climate-neutral solutions. How Fraunhofer UMSICHT emphasizes, the municipal heating plan helps in deciding between decentralized solutions such as heat pumps and future heating network areas.

In order to ensure a stable and cost-efficient heat supply, the heat plan will include various components: an inventory analysis of the current heat supply, the identification and evaluation of renewable energy sources, the preparation of a target scenario for 2045 and the development of a heat strategy. These steps are essential because in the future, large cities will also have to submit their own heat plans by June 30, 2026 and smaller municipalities by 2028.

Challenges and future prospects

Despite the wide range of options, municipalities face challenges, particularly when it comes to the time-consuming process of obtaining the necessary data for the various analyses. It is important to strengthen cooperation between administration, municipal utilities, the housing industry and distribution network operators in order to successfully implement municipal heat planning. Geoinformation tools can provide support here, but data availability varies depending on the federal state.

In summary, the municipal heat planning in Prenzlau shows that smaller cities can also have a good knack for climate-friendly energy supply. The first steps have already been taken and citizens have the opportunity to actively participate in shaping their future heat supply. Anyone interested in this topic should take a look at the documents available online at wärmeplan.prenzlau.de are visible.