Lounavoima is owned by waste management services provider Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto Oy and district heating company Salon Kaukolämpö Oy. Founded in 2017, Lounavoima’s main task is to produce district heating and electricity from municipal waste that cannot be recycled by Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto. The Korvenmäki eco-power plant produces around 220 GWh of heating energy from municipal waste every year. However, the plant’s efficiency has been seasonal: during the warmer months, the plant produces significant surplus heat. On an annual basis, about a quarter of this is lost as waste heat. QHeat implemented six 1,6 to 2,0 km geothermal wells at the customer site. This helps Lounavoima store the surplus heat energy generated by the eco-power plant and extract it during the heating season. The current geothermal energy management profile enables the customer to manage peak power requirements from the geothermal wells. This is done by running the majority of the wells on constant energy and extracting peak energy from a one or two wells, based on the needs.
