At the insistence of the Free Voters and FÜR Karlsruhe city council group, the city of Karlsruhe is considering the construction of a biogas plant. Until now, Karlsruhe’s city council has been critical of a local dry fermentation plant, since Karlsruhe alone produces too little biomass for economically viable use.

For this reason, the city council group Freie Wähler and FÜR Karlsruhe made the proposal to build the plant together with the district of Karlsruhe in order to cover a larger area and to be able to process more biowaste. In times of gas shortage and detachment from Russian gas, regional gas production is particularly important. It is striking that Karlsruhe and the surrounding area have so far been a blank spot on the map when it comes to regional biogas production.

“We must finally make use of synergies. Especially since Karlsruhe can already provide three quarters of the minimum amount of material required. In cooperation with the district, the construction of a dry fermentation plant is worthwhile! It is neither a good logistical nor climatic solution if we continue to transport our biowaste to Flöckersheim-Wicker, 145 km away, and to Bietigheim, 83 km away. It is good that we are now rethinking,” said City Councilor Friedemann Kalmbach, city council group leader of Freie Wähler and FÜR Karlsruhe, in the Karlsruhe City Council.

Karlsruhe is still contractually bound to the previous contractors until 2036. It is the wish of the group community that the city enters into new negotiations and gets out of the contracts in order to take a step towards self-sufficient energy production with its own biogas plant.

Lord Mayor Frank Mentrup is also positive about the idea of a biogas plant in the Karlsruhe district and refers to a project that will be discussed in the near future.