Norderstedt Mitte, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany (source: Christian Alexander Tietgen, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Norderstedt license area is located in Schleswig-Holstein, in the districts of Pinneberg and Segeberg, and measures around 9.3 square kilometers in area. The permission is initially limited to two years from 1st of September 2023 to 31st of August 2025.

Stadtwerke Norderstedt submitted the application for permission to explore for geothermal energy in December last year. After the LBEG examined the application and gave the districts affected by the area the opportunity to comment and informed the relevant municipalities, it has now granted the permit. This only gives Stadtwerke Norderstedt the basic right to carry out the search. Actual exploration activities may only take place after approval of operating plans under mining law, for which, among other things, a separate participation procedure is necessary.

The Norderstedt license area adds to a growing list of geothermal exploration permits that the LBEG has granted in the last few years. The LBEG has now issued 16 of these permits – 14 in Lower Saxony, one in Hamburg, and now another one in Schleswig-Holstein. We had reported previously on the permits granted for Munster and Bad Bevensen, as well as in Soltau and Uelzen.

In 2021, the State of Lower Saxony announced a campaign to promote geothermal as part of the energy transition movement with the involvement of municipal utilities and energy providers. In addition to its capacity as a mining authority, the LBEG is also the Lower Saxony Geothermal Service (NGD), which provides technically neutral and economically independent advice on near-surface and deep geothermal energy and creates and maintains geoscientific foundations.

The LBEG underlines the importance of geothermal energy as a regenerative energy source and regularly offers events for the general public and specialist audiences – such as the “Geothermal Energy Day” on Friday and Saturday, September 15th and 16th, at the LBEG headquarters in the Stilleweg 2, in Hanover.