Austria's largest geothermal probe field is completed

A new climate-friendly urban district uses local resources to produce energy.

The "Village im Dritten" project is creating a sustainable new urban district in the federal capital: Around 2,000 apartments, offices, commercial spaces, and local amenities, as well as childcare and educational facilities, will be built around a public park. The climate-friendly energy concept focuses on the use of locally available, renewable resources. This means that as much energy as possible should be produced and used directly on-site. The project has recently reached an important milestone: Austria's largest geothermal energy field is currently being completed.

Drilling began around two years ago for a total of 500 geothermal probes, a key component of the energy concept. The final probes are currently being installed before construction work for the third phase begins. The geothermal probes each extend 150 meters deep and enable the use of the ground for heating in winter and for temperature control or cooling in summer. They will be connected via pipelines to form Austria's largest energy network, which will transport the geothermal energy to the buildings.

Specifically, this means that geothermal energy at temperatures between five and 19 degrees Celsius travels through the probes into the building's heat pumps, which further increase the temperature for heating. The electricity for the heat pumps comes, among other things, directly from the photovoltaic systems on the roofs of the buildings. All buildings are also connected to the district heating and electricity grids to guarantee a reliable supply on days with little sun or very cold, and also to supply hot water. Surface heating systems such as underfloor heating or building component activation are used to heat the apartments. These systems only require low flow temperatures, allowing the heat pumps to operate even more efficiently. In summer, excess heat is removed from the buildings and stored in the ground using probes. During winter, this heat is extracted from the ground and used for heating by means of a heat pump. This allows a large portion of the heating energy to be generated from local resources. In addition, waste heat extracted from the buildings in summer is used to produce hot water.

The "Village im Dritten" project, consisting of 22 building plots, is being developed by ARE (Austrian Real Estate GmbH) as the district developer, together with Wohnfonds Wien (Vienna Housing Fund) and the City of Vienna. The new district will be completed by 2027 on an area of ​​approximately eleven hectares. The central, approximately two-hectare park in the heart of the district provides a relaxing retreat, but also offers sports and play opportunities, and has a positive impact on the entire neighborhood.

In addition, all non-accessible roofs and some of the facades will be greened. In addition to a virtually car-free and bicycle-friendly design of the neighborhood, local shops, childcare centers, schools, and offices will contribute to short distances within the city and thus to environmentally friendly use of resources.

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