
Joint press release by the city of Hanover, Enercity, and Eavor
The state capital of Hanover is taking a further step in the heating transition. As part of a leasehold contract, the city is providing the Eavor company with a property in the Lahe district (Kirchhorster Straße/corner of Alte Peiner Heerstraße). Working together with Enercity, geothermal energy will be produced there to generate renewable heat for Hanover’s district heating network.
Enercity and Eavor signed a long-term heat supply contract in September 2023. With a planned heating capacity of around 30 megawatts, the facility will make a significant contribution to the phase-out of coal in Hanover.
This flagship project brings the city a major step closer to its goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2035. The implementation of the Eavor-Loop™ in Hanover is the first project of its kind in a major German city, and thus groundbreaking.
“We are pleased to be taking a further step towards the heating transition and to be able to establish a geothermal project here in Hanover that is setting benchmarks.” The project makes an important and innovative contribution to climate protection,” says Anja Ritschel, head of the department of economic and environmental affairs in Hanover.
Dr. Marc Hansmann, Enercity management board member, adds: “With carbon-free geothermal energy, we can cover around 15 percent of Hanover’s district heating needs. This alone corresponds to the annual demand of up to 20,000 apartments.” Daniel Mölk, site manager at Eavor GmbH, comments: “We are pleased to be launching this joint project. We’ll demonstrate how we can contribute to the heating transition with our innovative technology.”
The next project steps
Explosive ordnance sounding and subsoil investigations begin on October 14, 2024. Extensive seismic investigations will be carried out in spring 2025. Initial construction work to connect the infrastructure and prepare the drilling site will start in the fall of 2025. Drilling is scheduled to begin in mid-2026 while the heat transfer station is being built and Enercity is connecting the lines to the grid. The Eavor-Loop™ is expected to be completed by spring 2027, enabling heat delivery to begin.
With this project, Hanover is not only focusing on a sustainable energy future, but also on an innovative technology that will help the city to become more climate-neutral. The project will be presented in more detail at the Bothfeld-Vahrenheide district council meeting on October 23 at 6 p.m. The meeting will be held at the Herschelschule, Großer Kolonnenweg 37, 30179 Hannover.
Media contact
Enercity
Lucas Kesterke
lucas.kesterke@enercity.de
Cell: +49 1520 1052973
Eavor
Alexander Land
presse@eavor.de
Phone.: +49 211 16975925
Eavor GmbH is a subsidiary of Eavor Technologies Inc. Its task is to develop geothermal heat and power generation projects in Germany. Eavor Technologies Inc., the parent company, was founded in Canada in 2017 by specialists from the energy sector. Numerous groundbreaking patents in drilling technology and in the sealing of boreholes form the foundation of Eavor-Loop™ technology. In Geretsried, Eavor™ is writing the next chapter of the energy transition. The Eavor-Loop™ is a geothermal power station with a closed system. In an underground heat exchanger, a heat transfer fluid circulates independently in the plutonic rock. Thermal water is not required.