On 10 March a 4x10 axle heavy haulage truck that set off from the Austrian municipality of Jenbach finally reached its destination in Saarbrücken, Germany after a journey of nearly 470 miles carrying an Innio Jenbacher gas engine weighing around 93 tons. A further four engines are due to follow and will form the centrepiece of the new gas engine based CHP plant Römerbrücke (‘Gamor’) run by utility company Energie SaarLorLux.
The district heating plant Römerbrücke operated by Energie SaarLorLux in Saarbrücken was converted to gas as its primary fuel in 2003. The commissioning of the additional, new gas power plant in 2022 will result in the complete phaseout of coal which lately has only been used to cover peak loads.
At the heart of the new power plant Römerbrücke Gamor will be five Jenbacher J920 FleXtra gas engines with an output totalling 50 MW and an overall efficiency of up to 92 %.
Germany intends to phase out coal entirely by 2038 at the latest; in this coming year alone, coal-fired power plants with a total output of 12.5 GW are projected to go offline.
“In the future we’ll save more than 60 000 metric tons of CO2 a year compared to the old coal-fired facility,” commented Joachim Morsch, board member and spokesman from Energie SaarLorLux,
The fast start capability of these gas engines also makes them an excellent complement to renewable energy, says Innio. Power plants capable of rapid start-up are required to balance out the fluctuations of renewable supplies..
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