Berlin homes to be heated with energy from wind power

BERLIN – Swedish utility company Vattenfall is investing almost 100 million euros ($112 million) to build a power-to-heat facility in the German capital.

Vattenfall says the 120-megawatt thermal energy facility in Berlin’s western district of Spandau aims to use wind power to provide heating to thousands of homes in the city of 3.5 million.

Berlin has long used a system known as district heating to pump water heated in coal and gas-fired power plants directly into households.

Germany is expanding the use of renewable energy sources as part of its effort to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades.

The country already generates a large amount of electricity from wind power plants in the north of the country, some of which will now be used to heat Berlin homes.