Erdwärme Grünwald has been operating the ORC power plant in Laufzorn since 18 December 2014. The green electricity is fed into the public grid.

ORC stands for Organic Rankine Cycle – in this process, steam turbines are operated with a working fluid other than water vapour. Laufzorn uses isobutane, an environmentally friendly, non-toxic gas that is a proven base material in industry and is found in commercially available lighters.

The turbine has an output of 4.3 MW. The adjustable nozzle setting of the turbines guarantees high efficiency even at different ambient temperatures and thermal water mass flows. The ORC power plant is cooled with air condensers. The power provided is 4,200 kW per hour.