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The world’s largest heat pumps will be used for climate-friendly district heating generation in Aalborg, Denmark, in the successor to the Esbjerg heat pump project.

Danish utility company Aalborg Forsyning has commissioned MAN Energy Solutions to supply a turnkey district heating generation system with a total heating capacity of 132 MW. This system will consist of three heat pump units, each delivering 44 MW. The heat pump units from Zurich will be some of the largest heat pumps ever installed in a district heating plant anywhere in the world. All told, the plant will produce around 550,000 MWh of heat a year, accounting for over a third of heat production in Aalborg, Denmark’s third-largest municipality.

MAN ES is currently installing a heat pump system with a capacity of 60 MW in the Danish seaport town of Esbjerg. It will be supplied with electricity from offshore wind farms and use the Wadden Sea as an energy source. The new co-generation plant will replace the town’s existing coal-fired power plant and supply around 25,000 households with approximately 280,000 MWh of climate-friendly heat a year.
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MAN supports Aalborg on its way to net zero

The location of Aalborg Forsyning’s district heating plant in Norbis Park on the north bank of the Limfjord makes it possible to use seawater as a heat source. Heat pump units will use renewable electricity to raise the temperature of the seawater (from 1-15 °C) to a maximum of 98 °C, the temperature required by the district heating network. Compared with the existing coal-fired power plant, which is to be decommissioned in 2028, the heat pump solution will reduce carbon emissions by 160,000 metric tons a year. At the heart of the Aalborg system are three oil-free, hermetically sealed HOFIM® motor compressor units, all built and tested in Zurich. CO2 will be used in a closed circuit as a natural coolant. Construction work on the project is scheduled to start in August 2024. It is anticipated that the heat pump system will be handed over to Aalborg Forsyning in 2027 following testing and commissioning.

550000
MWh of heat a year will be produced at the Aalborg plant
160000
metric tons of CO2 emissions a year will be avoided

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