Unterhaching is a town of around 25,000 people a few kilometers south of Munich, Germany. In most respects it is typical of small towns in Europe, except for one thing, it has built and now operates its own power generating station using hot water from deep within the Earth’s crust. The idea first arose in the 1990’s and over the following decade the town secured the venture capital and the engineering resources to drill down three-and-a half kilometers to tap into a permeable limestone layer containing hot water....Read More

This month Comment Visions travels to Germany, to visit a remarkable town...

Wolfgang Geisinger is in charge of powering the town of Unterhaching, in his role as Managing Director, Geothermie Unterhaching GmbH. The reason Comment Visions sought him out is that Unterhaching is powered almost entirely by Geothermal energy, derived from an underground reservoir beneath the town.

When it was discovered in the 1990's this natural source of energy became the starting point for an exciting, enterprising community project in this small town south of Munich. The town raised the funds to drill into the reservoir and create a geothermal power station to harness the energy. Entirely owned by the town the power station provides heating and power for the area itself as well as selling energy to Germany's national grid.

In a fascinating look at how a small community has chosen its own path amid the bigger, more fragmented, energy crisis debate Wolgang Geisinger describes how Unterhaching came together to control it's own energy supplies and the way in which it has changed the town.

Monday: 01:45, 05:15, 07:45, 10:45, 15:45
Tuesday: 22:45*, 14:15
Wednesday: 03:15, 07:45, 11:15, 14:15, 18:45
Thursday: 02:15, 05:15, 13:15, 15:15, 17:45, 19:45
Friday: 11:45, 15:15, 17:15
Saturday: 04:15, 09:15, 15:45, 18:45
Sunday: 00:15, 07:15, 09:15, 19:45, 22:45

*Starts Tuesday 22:45, all times CET.

Only broadcast in the first week of each month.