Vegetable farm supplies district heating to Nuremberg Airport

For more than 15 years, Nuremberg Airport has been receiving district heating from its direct neighbor, the Scherzer vegetable farm. Production takes place in a so-called wood chip heating plant.  

The heat is generated in the Scherzer heating plant using two large wood chip boilers and is sent to the airport as hot water via a pressure pipe. There, the distribution in the buildings takes place via the existing network to the radiators and ventilation systems. The heat from the wood chip plant is enough to heat the airport even on days with temperatures around freezing point. Gas heating only needs to be supported during longer periods of frost.  

For the connection of the previously separate East and West heating networks in 2022, an around 500 meter long, insulated connecting pipe was laid. As a result, the large departure hall 2 and the DFS tower, among other things, received their own district heating connection, so that the entire airport area can now be supplied with district heating. 

“By connecting the two heating networks, Nuremberg Airport is taking another big step towards reducing CO2 emissions,” said airport managing director Dr. Michael Horn. In addition, security of supply is increased as two independent heating plants can now feed into the airport's heating network. Klaus Dotzauer, Managing Director of the Nuremberg Airport Energy Company, adds: “Wood chips are largely climate-neutral and a pipe-independent raw material that is currently available in sufficient quantities. Last winter we were able to virtually avoid using natural gas as an energy source.” 

The Scherzer family business, which specializes in growing vegetables in greenhouses, has been relying on biomass since 2007: At that time, the wood chip heating plant within sight of the airport went online. The facility was extensively modernized in 2022. The two new boilers each have an output of four megawatts.