The geothermal plant provides heating in winter and cooling in summer for eight buildings with a total floor area of more than 10,000 m2. To further enhance efficiency, Busch also upgraded the buildings themselves: facades and roofs were renovated for improved energy performance, and a smart building automation system was installed.
“Our goal is to enable environmentally friendly, modern heating and cooling of our buildings. Combined with our photovoltaic system, the geothermal plant offers an excellent solution for this,” explains Dr Martin Gutmann, General Manager of Busch Produktions GmbH.
The geothermal plant replaces a significant portion of the company’s oil and gas consumption. It will reduce CO₂ emissions at the Maulburg headquarters by more than 237 tons per year.
Engineering beneath the surface
Installing the plant required careful planning both above and below the surface. Two boreholes, each one meter in diameter, were drilled to a depth of around 23 meters and positioned as far apart as possible. This spacing prevents the hydraulic and thermal intermixing of warm groundwater with the cooled reinjection water from the plant’s heat exchanger.Geothermal energy is one part of a broader, integrated energy concept at Busch. To further reduce its carbon footprint, the company has also invested in a woodchip plant that saves more than 255 tons of CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels each year. It is fueled by wood chips from local forests, which emit only as much CO2 during combustion as the trees absorbed during their growth and as replanted trees will absorb again. The plant generates the heat required for high-energy operations like in the paint shop. Additional efficiency gains are achieved by heat recovery from compressors, which are used to heat water and support the building’s heating system.