This large-scale solar district heating plant, announced earlier this year, is set to start operations in 2024. It aims not only to meet the entire hot water demand for connected households in the village of Bad Rappenau in southern Germany during the summer but also to facilitate the drying of animal feed at the factory owned by the investor, Bauer Biomasse. The company’s motivation, as stated by Markus Bauer, the company boss, is that wood and, particularly, biogas are too valuable to be used for generating district heat when solar energy can fulfill that purpose.