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Alunorf, the world's largest smelting and rolling mill for aluminum and 50% in the hands of Hydro, had initiated a partnership with Stadtwerke Neuss in 1994. With success: District heating from Alunorf has been flowing continuously into the households of All Saints South since February 1999. The necessary investments, including 35 million euros for exhaust air purification and district heating at Alunorf, were expressly welcomed at the time and subsidized by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, at that time under the direction of Angela Merkel.

The network for heating the suburb in the south of the city of Neuss measures 14 kilometers today. The new development area continues to grow, and a further 350 households will soon be connected to the network. In the final expansion, this saves as much CO2 annually as 8,000 cars emit. The residents can warm up relaxed, considering a comfortable and inexpensive, but also environmentally friendly and clean heating.

"When I see all the houses without chimneys, it reflects our own zeal and our & nbsp; Services in using all of our resources as efficiently as possible, "said Alunorf's Commercial Director, Thomas Geupel, when he met Heinz Runde, CEO of Stadtwerke Neuss, to sign the contract for the extension.

About technology: 1,300 ° C is the waste heat that comes from the Alunorf melting furnaces - a company that melts 900,000 tons of aluminum a year, making it the world's largest smelting plant for aluminum. This heat is dissipated and converted via a double system of heat exchangers, which heat up an enormous hot water circuit. At that time the method was new, today it has found many imitators in Germany and abroad.

At the beginning there was another problem: the ovens only ran for five days a week. So that the neighbors did not freeze at the weekend, the plant switched to continuous operation. Not the only reason: "Today it is not an issue that we make shift work flexible and help so that our jobs remain competitive," says Christian Funk, head of the works council and deputy chairman of the board of Alunorf.

This text is machine translated. To view the original German text, click on DE on the top right of this window

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