In contrast to combustion engines, the amount of energy required to manufacture the batteries plays a greater role in electric cars. According to the Heidelberg IFEU Institute, one kWh of battery capacity can save around 125 kg of CO2-emissions. The production of an electricity storage system with 24 kWh therefore produces around three tonnes of CO2 emissions. In contrast, the emissions produced when building an electric motor are lower. As a result, the e-car has to reduce its driving emissions by around 2.74 tonnes of CO2 offset. This means that if we concentrate too much on the emission of greenhouse gases, we could end up reducing CO2-The overall balance of a product should not be lost sight of. The latest, most economical model is not always the best choice and the frugal use of an existing product is the better way. In short, a vehicle should not be purchased as long as the CO2-backpack has not been emptied.
Timber construction can be cheaper than standard construction - At the same time significantly better CO2 balance
MNP Architects Munich, School Wangen
Current comparative calculations based on realized new buildings in timber construction show: Building with wood does not have to be more expensive than the standard construction method. This result is surprising, as it contradicts the common perception that timber construction is more expensive. At the same time, the CO2 balance of timber construction is significantly better; as a result, its CO2 avoidance costs are very favourable, in some cases even negative. An expansion of timber construction would therefore be climate protection at comparatively low cost.
The architect and developer of the Legep construction software, Holger König, has balanced the construction costs and CO2 emissions for the production of five public and private timber buildings and compared them with the results that would have been produced for the same buildings if they had been built in the conventional way. Legep can be used to calculate the manufacturing and life-cycle costs, energy requirements and environmental impact of buildings. In this case, König only looked at manufacturing. For the prices, he used current sirAdos data, which represent the market very realistically. He then went to the trouble that many architects, civil engineers and building owners shy away from: He modeled the buildings with the same area and cubature and the same energy standard, but replaced the wooden components with conventional materials - depending on the building project, solid masonry in brick, sand-lime brick or aerated concrete, or a column-beam supporting structure made of reinforced concrete. He used reinforced concrete for the floor slab, cellar, ceilings and flat roofs, mineral wool or polystyrene for the insulation, and plastic or aluminum frames for the windows. König explains the fact that four out of five buildings in timber construction cost less or the same as in standard construction with the industrial-technical development that many timber construction companies have undergone in recent years. Two of the timber buildings even achieved a negative CO2 balance in the manufacturing phase due to the large amount of renewable raw materials used, which act as carbon stores. In the other three buildings, a slightly higher proportion of non-wooden components, which every timber building also contains, caused the slightly positive CO2 balance.
If one relates the difference in CO2 savings to the difference in construction costs, one obtains the CO2 avoidance costs of timber construction. Negative abatement costs here mean that the builder has saved costs with timber construction compared to standard construction and at the same time protected the climate.
By increasing the proportion of timber construction, more climate protection can be achieved at low or even negative costs, while at the same time strengthening rural areas. The green-red state government in Baden-Württemberg has recognised this and created more favourable framework conditions for the building material in its state building code, which was amended on 1 March (information here). In contrast, some state building codes still contain legal obstacles to building with wood.
The city of Munich also wants to convince more builders to use timber construction: as part of its "Munich Energy Saving Promotion Programme", it has been granting a CO2 bonus for the use of timber and other renewable raw materials in building construction of 30 cents/kg since 2013 (information here).
A high insulation standard with insulating materials made from renewable raw materials is also a contribution to climate protection. The plant raw materials from which the insulating materials were obtained have bound CO2 from the atmosphere, which is now stored in the building material for long periods of time. And finally, heating based on renewable energies also reduces CO2 emissions.
The Agency of Renewable Resources (Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e.V.). (FNR) funded the determination of LCA baseline data for the Legep programme with funds from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) between 2004 and 2006.
The 88th Conference of Environment Ministers has just passed a resolution in Bad Saarow on the "Promotion of Building with Wood", which was introduced by Rhineland-Palatinate. The document calls on the federal government to improve the framework conditions for timber construction.
According to the Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of the Environment, the positive climate protection properties of renewable raw materials are to be taken into account in building energy law, among other things.
This would be more than desirable, because the draft bill for the Building Energy Act (GEG) recently presented by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) missed the opportunity to finally take the entire life cycle of buildings into account in the amendment.
Read more:
Press release of the Ministry of Environment, Energy, Food and Forestry of Rhineland-Palatinate (May 5, 2017)
In an interview with PV Magazine, Xavier Daval, President of the French solar association Ser-Soler, said the EU desperately needs a major European photovoltaic manufacturer. A complete exodus of the domestic solar industry to China and the US, he said, would drive Europe into energy dependency for decades to come. "We are not talking about a small task here. We are talking about the challenge of this century. When module manufacturing moved to China, the Germans thought they would continue to sell manufacturing equipment to Chinese solar producers. But now they have to look at equipping factories in China with locally made production lines. In the long run, this was a wrong decision. What the Europeans have to do now is to correct this situation. In the automotive industry, there are big players in Europe, China and the US. The same must now happen in the European solar industry. If we don't, we will be dependent on products from other regional markets in the future. For a century we have been dependent on oil from outside Europe. We must not allow a continuation of this dependency also in renewable energies and their technologies," says Daval.
Funding is available for greening facades and roofs and for unsealing on private, public (with the exception of municipal) and commercial properties in the Hannover urban area.
- Facade greening - funding of up to 3,500 euros
- Green roofs - subsidies of up to 10,000 euros
- Unsealing - funding of up to 10,000 euros
Application deadline: from May 2013 until 31.12.2020
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