Project diary
This is where we inform you about important events and milestones relating to the planning and construction of a sewage sludge combined heat and power plant on the Walheim site. You will find the latest information here on the timetable for the planning and permit process as well as the progress of the construction work.
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Provisionally 2027
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Start-up phase and commercial commissioning
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Provisionally 2026
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Installation of plant technology
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Provisionally Q2 2025
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Shell construction work
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February 2025
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Bored piles for the foundations
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October 2024
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Approval for advance construction work to begin
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November 2023
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Completion of documentation for the approval application
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March 2023
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Approval application checked by the authorities to ensure it is complete
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February 2023
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Approval application submitted
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26 October 2022
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Scoping meeting* held by Stuttgart Regional Council
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Start of 2022
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Dialogue with the municipality
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2020/2021
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Early public consultation process, presentation to the Municipal Council, expert reports produced
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* In complex planning processes, a scoping meeting is held by the authority overseeing the process (in this case Stuttgart Regional Council). With the involvement of public agencies and specialist authorities, the meeting is used to formally determine the subject, scope and methodology of the regional impact and environmental impact studies as well as the content of the application documents that need to be drawn up.
Construction diary
April 2025
In the area of the planned new building, a total of eight test pits were dug on the site of the coal storage facility so that soil samples could be taken. To this end, the horizontal layer of coal, varying in thickness, was removed. Then the test pits were dug (see photo). Horizontal samples were taken from the material that was excavated from the test pits and, depending on their appearance, combined into mixed samples.
These samples were tested for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOH), heavy metals and per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS). The results of the soil testing showed no evidence of pollution on the construction site of the sewage sludge combined heat and power plant in Walheim. The tested soil material can therefore be safely and, provided it is suitable from a geotechnical perspective, unreservedly reused in the building process.
March 2025
The new access road to the power plant is built. Pipe packages are installed for water, the fire main, district heating and electrical conduits, among other things.
February 2025
Work on the installation of 226 bored piles is under way. These stabilize the subsoil because they transfer the load from the building structures into soil layers more capable of bearing loads.
January 2025
The former coal dump is prepared for the construction of the bored piles, with excavators used to scrape off the thin layer of coal.
November 2024
Preparatory work, including cutting in an access road, starts at the site after Stuttgart Regional Council’s decision of 30 October 2024 to allow the advance construction work to begin (see Stuttgart Regional Council’s press release). This allows certain preparatory work to be carried out on the site. EnBW informed the residents of Walheim and Gemmrigheim about this in writing, with the letter sent to every home on Friday, 8 November 2024.
August 2024
Stuttgart Regional Council granted approval for advance work to start on relocating sand lizards and wall lizards. The relocation measures for the sand lizards and wall lizards began on Wednesday, 21 August 2024, with the creatures professionally captured by experienced wildlife ecologists and relocated to their new habitat built on the edge of the power plant site. This work can only be carried out at certain times of the year.
February 2024
Load testing on the test piles is completed. At the beginning of 2024, load tests were performed on the test piles on the coal dump at Walheim power plant. They had been installed at a depth of around 26 meters at the end of 2023 but had to be allowed to set before testing could begin. This involves using so-called reaction piles to exert pressure on the test piles by means of a hydraulic press. The reaction piles formed the end bearing over the red steel girder. The pressure was applied slowly over different load levels and cycles, with the settlement and deflection of the test pile registered and recorded by measuring devices.
January 2024: The public review of the application documents begins
On 23 February 2023, EnBW submitted an application to Stuttgart Regional Council (RPS) as the licensing authority for the issuance of the first partial permit under immission control regulations for the construction and operation of the sewage sludge combined heat and power plant planned on the Walheim site.
RPS then went through the application documents to check that they were complete. The checks revealed that certain elements still needed to be added to the application. These were then requested and later supplied by EnBW. The licensing authority confirmed that the submitted application documents were now complete, allowing the approval process to enter the next phase.
On 19 January 2024, the project was publicly announced in the “Staatsanzeiger” and on the websites of RPS and the municipalities of Walheim and Gemmrigheim as well as on the central website www.uvp-verbund.de/bw. The announcement text can be found on the RPS website at www.rp-stuttgart.de > Service > Announcements > Environmental matters.
The public review of the application documents was held in the municipality of Walheim, the municipality of Gemmrigheim and the RPS offices from Friday, 26 January up to and including Monday, 26 February 2024. The documents could be viewed at the following locations during the respective opening hours of the offices:
- Walheim Town Hall, Hauptstraße 68, 74399 Walheim, Room 12
- Gemmrigheim Town Hall, Ottmarsheimer Str. 1, 74376 Gemmrigheim, Building Authority, Room 12
- Stuttgart Regional Council, Ruppmannstr. 21, 70565 Stuttgart, Room B 1081
Parallel to the review of the application documents, documents relevant to the decision-making process were posted on the environmental impact assessment website: www.uvp-verbund.de/bw
Objections to the project could be raised in writing to RPS or the municipalities of Walheim and Gemmrigheim at the aforementioned addresses or electronically by e-mail to abteilung5@rps.bwl.de from Friday, 26 January up to and including Tuesday, 26 March 2024. The name and full address of the person raising the objection had to be stated and the letter had to be signed. Objections had to at least indicate the suspected threat to legal interests and the nature of the negative impact.
Parallel to the announcement and the review of the application documents, RPS asked the bodies representing the public interest affected by the plans for an expert opinion on the project. The meeting to discuss the planned sewage sludge combined heat and power plant in Walheim was set for Monday, 24 June 2024, at the Forum in Ludwigsburg, in the event of any objections having been raised in the context of the immission control procedure.