Suche
Mein Konto
Showering with wind power: This is how households use excess energy!
Dithmarschen is testing innovative heating elements to use excess wind power for hot water. A step towards the energy transition.
Showering with wind power: This is how households use excess energy!
A promising project in Schleswig-Holstein could have a major impact on how surplus green electricity is handled. The Prokon energy cooperative plans to install heating elements in 100 households in Dithmarschen and North Frisia, which will use excess wind power that would otherwise be fed into the grid or regulated. The heating rod, which Gunnar Hinrichsen enthusiastically talks about in Galmsbüll, works like a large immersion heater and is activated when wind turbines produce more electricity than can be used. Instead of paying 14 cents per kilowatt hour for gas, the family could only afford 6.5 cents for electricity from wind energy, explains Hinrichsen. This technology could revolutionize the hot water system and allow households to shower in a more environmentally friendly way, like NDR reported.
Technological challenges and solutions
The approach sounds promising, but also involves risks. The performance of conventional heating elements cannot react flexibly to the amount of electricity available. Operators of photovoltaic systems are often faced with the choice of either purchasing additional grid electricity or feeding excess electricity into the grid at a low feed-in tariff EFAHRER.com. More effective alternatives are continuously variable heating elements, which can dynamically adjust the heating output based on the amount of solar power available. This technology, which can be more expensive to purchase, could help reduce energy costs and optimize the use of excess energy.
With a growing interest in renewable energies and new legal regulations that enable projects such as “wind showering”, the question of the efficiency and economic benefits of heating technologies in private households is becoming increasingly pressing. The project could not only increase the acceptance of wind energy among the population, but also, depending on its success, contribute to stabilizing the future energy system.