Ørsted’s Innovative Approach to Surplus Heat: A Win for Green District Heating

Ørsted’s Innovative Approach to Surplus Heat: A Win for Green District Heating

(IN BRIEF) Ørsted, a leading renewable energy company, has teamed up with Danish district heating providers VEKS and CTR to utilize surplus heat generated by a carbon capture plant at Avedøre Power Station. This surplus heat will be used to provide green district heating to around 16,000 households in the Greater Copenhagen area. The carbon capture plant is expected to capture 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually from its straw-fired unit. By efficiently converting surplus heat into district heating, this initiative aims to deliver cost-effective and environmentally friendly heating while reducing energy consumption for carbon capture. The agreement spans from 2024 to 2027, with plans to establish a long-term arrangement for surplus heat utilization.

(PRESS RELEASE) FREDERICIA, 2-Feb-2024 — /EuropaWire/ —  Ørsted (CPH: ORSTED), a Danish leading operator of offshore and onshore wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities, and bioenergy plants as well as the world’s most sustainable energy company, announces that it has entered into a groundbreaking agreement with Danish district heating providers VEKS and CTR to harness surplus heat generated by the carbon capture process at Avedøre Power Station. This surplus heat will be utilized to provide green district heating to approximately 16,000 households in the Greater Copenhagen area. Avedøre Power Station is set to establish a carbon capture plant designed to capture 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually from its straw-fired unit, which powers the Greater Copenhagen region. Starting in 2026, the carbon captured from the stack will be stored, while the surplus heat generated will be converted into eco-friendly district heating. This sustainable approach maximizes energy utilization, offering cost-effective and environmentally friendly heating solutions while reducing carbon capture energy consumption.

“We’re constantly looking into opportunities for providing green and competitive district heating, and I’m pleased that we’ve made an agreement with our heat customers to utilise the surplus heat from our future carbon capture plant. By integrating carbon capture with heat generation at the power station, we can make the most of the energy in the fuel and supply cheap, green district heating to the Greater Copenhagen area, while minimising our own energy consumption for carbon capture,” explained Ole Thomsen, Senior Vice President and Head of Bioenergy at Ørsted.

The energy needed for carbon capture will be sourced from the power station’s own straw-fired unit, ensuring a renewable energy supply. Through a heat pump, surplus heat from both the carbon capture and flue gas condensation processes can be upgraded into district heating, effectively utilizing the same energy twice. This initiative promises to deliver cleaner district heating to the Greater Copenhagen area while significantly reducing energy consumption during carbon capture.

VEKS Chairman Steen Christiansen noted, “This agreement is a very important and tangible step in VEKS’s transformation to the green technologies of the future. It’s a good example why district heating is an important part of sector coupling while also being green, reliable, and sensibly priced. We look forward to the negotiations for a long-term agreement on the surplus heat from the plant.”

CTR Chair Line Barfod added, “It’s positive that surplus heat from carbon capture is now part of the total heat supply to district heating customers in the Greater Copenhagen area. The district heating supply of the future will consist of many different heat sources, which collectively can help us continue to provide district heating at an attractive price.”

The carbon capture plant at Avedøre Power Station is anticipated to generate approximately 34 MW of surplus heat from the carbon capture process and approximately 19 MW from the flue gas condensation process. The combined surplus heat of 53 MW equates to the annual district heating consumption of around 16,000 Danish households.

The agreement between VEKS, CTR, and Ørsted covers the period from 2024 to 2027, after which it will be reevaluated to establish a long-term arrangement for surplus heat from the carbon capture plant. Ørsted is also in the process of developing another carbon capture plant at Asnæs Power Station in Kalundborg, exploring similar solutions for utilizing surplus heat in partnership with local heat and steam customers.

For further information, please contact:

Ørsted Global Media Relations
Carsten Birkeland Kjær, + 45 99 55 77 65, cabkj@orsted.com

VEKS
Steen Christiansen, Chairman of VEKS, +45 40 50 85 07, steen.christiansen@albertslund.dk
Trine Sannem Mønsted, Vice President of VEKS, +45 26 18 02 92, tsm@veks.dk

CTR
Line Barfod, Chair of CTR, contact via Simon Nyborg, Head of Media Relations, at +45 21 52 51 60, simon.nyborg@kk.dk
Randi Skogstad, CEO of CTR, +45 41 88 18 81, rask@ctr.dk

About Ørsted
The Ørsted vision is a world that runs entirely on green energy. Ørsted develops, constructs and operates offshore and onshore wind farms, solar farms, energy storage facilities, renewable hydrogen and green fuels facilities, and bioenergy plants. Ørsted is recognised on the CDP Climate Change A List as a global leader on climate action and was the first energy company in the world to have its science-based net-zero emissions target validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Headquartered in Denmark, Ørsted employs approx. 8,700 people. Ørsted’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen (Orsted). In 2022, the company’s revenue was DKK 132.3 billion (EUR 17.8 billion).  For further information, visit orsted.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and X.

About VEKS
VEKS is owned by a community of partner municipalities and run as a non-profit company. VEKS is engaged in the production, transmission, and distribution of district heating in the Greater Copenhagen area.

VEKS was established in 1984 with the aim of helping to recover and utilise heat from CHP plants and surplus heat from waste incineration plants, data centres, industrial companies, etc. Read more about VEKS at VEKS.DK or LinkedIn.

About CTR
CTR’s job is to provide a sustainable and continuous heat supply in the Greater Copenhagen area – centrally located between heat suppliers and heat distributors and across the Danish municipalities of Frederiksberg, Gentofte, Gladsaxe, Copenhagen, and Tårnby. The system enables heat generation optimisation in the area and therefore makes it possible for the municipalities to offer their residents cheap, convenient, reliable, and eco-friendly heat generated by biomass, heat pumps, and electric boilers. Read more about CTR at ctr.dk.

SOURCE: Ørsted A/S