Expert opinion on the definition of a lower limit of economic efficiency for industrial waste heat utilization

Section 17 of the new Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG) provides for the establishment and operation of a waste heat platform, which is operated by the Federal Agency for Energy Efficiency (BfEE) at BAFA. The aim is to identify externally usable waste heat potential. Companies with an average total energy consumption of 2.5 GWh per year are obliged to indicate their waste heat potential there. Not every waste heat source is associated with economically usable waste heat potential. In order to avoid companies having to report every small potential source of waste heat on the platform and to ensure that only economically relevant waste heat potentials are actually reported, a threshold value for relevant waste heat potentials is to be defined at site level as part of a brief report, which determines when a company is obliged to provide information for a site.

The project consortium consisting of dena, Guidehouse, Fraunhofer ISI, adelphi and IER Stuttgart is preparing a brief report to determine the appropriate threshold value and the criteria for a sufficiently economic potential of the waste heat source. adelphi is responsible for the techno-economic modeling of the costs of tapping industrial waste heat potentials. In addition, adelphi is working with the consortium partners to survey companies and derive a practical location threshold value.