Heat from waste water to be used to heat Helsinki homes
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Helsinki will soon begin to utilise treated waste water in the production of district heat.
An underground heat pump installation has been built beneath Katri Vala Park in the Sörnäinen district of Helsinki, which will produce both district heating and district cooling.
Water treated at the Viikki waste water treatment plant will be led to the pumping station through an underground tunnel. After heat has been extracted, the waste water continues its journey to the sea.
The five machines have been in experimental use for a month. The official inauguration of the plant is in March.
When it is in full operation, it can produce enough district heat to warm an area with a population twice the size of Kauniainen.
The use of treated waste water as a source of energy for a heat pump is ecologically efficient: otherwise the heat would simply be dumped at sea. It is also environmentally friendly for the treated waste water to be cooled before pumping it into the sea.
Engineers at Helsinki Energy are proud of the plant, which is the largest of its kind in the world, and unique in its versatility. The plant produces both district heating and district cooling.
The pumping station took two and a half years to build. An area the size of one hectare was blasted into the granite rock, with three wide tunnels and connection tunnels with about two kilometres of pipe running through them.
The project was partly financd by a grant from the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The investment of about EUR 35 million was considerable, but the plant is inexpensive to use, and beneficial for the environment.
Helsingin Sanomat
