Kretschmann visits geothermal plant in Bruchsal

Geothermal heat from deep subsurface will become even more important in the future: Thereby, the extracted heat can supply neighborhoods and industry - via heating networks, completely without CO₂ emissions and independent of domestic sources. Until now, coal or gas had to be burned for this purpose. On September 8, 2022, Minister President Winfried Kretschmann visited the geothermal plant in Bruchsal, which is currently operated by the EnBW as well as the Bruchsal city utility. For some time now, the geothermal site has been supplying the nearby police barracks with heat, and since 2021 has also been producing lithium for car batteries.

For over 12 years, the EnBW and its partners have been operating two plants on the Upper Rhine, one in Soultz-sous-Forêts, Alsace, and another in Bruchsal. In each case, hot thermal water is pumped from several kilometers underground to the surface, where it is used thermally to produce electricity and provide heat. The deep water is very salty and contains, among other things, a significant amount of lithium. At both EnBW sites, it has already been possible to extract the light metal parallel to the thermal utilization. This summer, a test plant was set up in Bruchsal in order to further optimize the process. The Minister President of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, together with Environment Minister Thekla Walker, visited the site last week to obtain further information on the technology. The current activities are part of the UnLimited research project, which aims to further optimize the extraction of lithium from deep geothermal fluids in the Upper Rhine Graben. Beside the EnBW, the research consortium also includes the KIT, the University of Göttingen as well as the engineering companies BESTEC and Hydrosion.