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- ABB will supply integrated electrical infrastructure for seawater heat pump to deliver green heat to over 100,000 inhabitants of Danish port city of Esbjerg
- ABB’s technology will secure reliable renewable power supply, heat production and distribution for the plant
- Innovative 50MW heat pump system will use renewable energy from wind farms and extract the heat from sea water, replacing coal-powered solution as part of Denmark’s goal of cutting emissions by 70 percent by 2030
Urban areas account for over 70 percent of the world’s CO2emissions*, with heating and cooling representing the largest share of energy consumption, so delivering sustainable and affordable heating and cooling to cities is a priority in the fight against climate change.
ABB will deploy its complete electrical, instrumentation and control (EIC) package, motors and variable speed drives for the powerhouse of the heat pump, which will be the world’s largest seawater heat pump based on CO2as refrigerant. With Esbjerg facing the UNESCO world heritage area of the Wadden Sea, the careful selection of the right pump was essential. The 50 MW seawater heat pump system from MAN Energy Solutions, a long-standing customer of ABB, converts electrical energy into thermal energy and uses toxicologically safe CO2 as a refrigerant for the entire system cycle.
As part of their 2030 strategy to pursue a 100 percent fossil free heat production with zero loss of applied resources, DIN Forsyning is developing a new hybrid renewable district heat plant to replace heat currently supplied by Esbjerg coal-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant. For the CHP plant – which produces about half of all district heating for Esbjerg – to be decommissioned in April 2023, DIN Forsyning had to be ready with alternative heat sources for the district heating, which can reduce primary energy consumption by 50 percent and generate low-carbon energy from heat pumps.
ABB’s technology will contribute to the replacement of the coal-fired plant as the main source of heat for the city of Esbjerg and get closer to the goal of reducing carbon emissions in the city. It will also be deployed to ensure that the entire heating network can be powered from renewables, and distributed to the plant, through connections to the offshore wind turbines in the North Sea. In addition, ABB will supply a medium voltage variable speed drive, motors, as well as electrical and control solutions to support the high efficiency of the system and the accurate control of this massive heat pump.
ABB’s Process Automation business is a leader in automation, electrification and digitalization for the process and hybrid industries. We serve our customers with a broad portfolio of products, systems, and end-to-end solutions, including our #1 distributed control system, software, and lifecycle services, industry-specific products as well as measurement and analytics, marine and turbocharging offerings. As the global #2 in the market, we build on our deep domain expertise, diverse team, and global footprint, and are dedicated to helping our customers increase competitiveness, im-prove their return on investment and run safe, smart, and sustainable operations.
ABB is a leading global technology company that energizes the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future. By connecting software to its electrification, robotics, automation and motion portfolio, ABB pushes the boundaries of technology to drive performance to new levels. With a history of excellence stretching back more than 130 years, ABB’s success is driven by about 105,000 talented employees in over 100 countries. www.abb.com
