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Germany's largest thermal solar plant is located in the former Lusatian lignite mining area

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In September, Germany's largest thermal solar plant officially went into operation in the Brandenburg city of Senftenberg. The plant was built by Stadtwerke Senftenberg on an area of around 2.2 hectares and is expected to produce around four million kilowatt hours of heat per year.

Due to its outstanding commitment to the expansion of renewable energies, the Agency for Renewable Energies awards the city of Senftenberg as Energy Municipality of the Month. "In order to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, the heating sector is of great importance. With the construction of the solar thermal plant, the city of Senftenberg presents itself as a pioneer in the municipal heat transition," says Nils Boenigk, Deputy Managing Director of the Agency for Renewable Energies.

In the city of 25,000 inhabitants, the new solar thermal plant and a natural gas heating plant generate heat that is supplied to over 10,000 households via the local district heating network. The plant consists of 1,680 tube collectors that generate heat during the average 1,700 hours of sunshine per year. In the summer months, it almost completely covers the base load. The demand in excess of this is generated by natural gas boilers. Together, the plants replace the former pulverised lignite boiler. "The new solar thermal plant brings us closer to our goal of covering more and more of the heating needs of the city of Senftenberg with renewable sources," explains Mayor Andreas Fredrich. "With the largest plant in Germany at present, we are pioneers in the application of this technology."

The project is a highlight among the local climate protection efforts resulting from the energy concept published in 2013. This concept examines and evaluates the opportunities and possibilities for the expansion of renewable energies and the economical use of energy. The city focuses primarily on the heating sector, as its heating needs account for the largest share of total energy consumption. The new thermal solar plant makes a major contribution to renewable heat generation here. In the electricity sector, where up to 90 per cent of demand was already generated from renewable sources in 2011, the city is even aiming to generate more than 100 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

"The city of Senftenberg is well positioned in the field of renewable energies," explains Mayor Andreas Fredrich. "With the help of the energy concept, municipal and regional stakeholders can more easily identify energy saving potential and plan and implement the expansion of renewable energies more effectively."

A detailed portrait of the city of Senftenberg can be found at http://www.kommunal-erneuerbar.de/de/energie-kommunen/energie-kommunen/senftenberg.html


Keywords: Renewable, News Blog Brandenburg, Solar thermal

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City of Cologne relies on wood with immediate effect
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City of Cologne relies on wood with immediate effect

By a large majority, the city council has instructed the administration to increase the use of wooden building materials in new municipal buildings such as schools and day-care centres. Complete wooden buildings are to be erected wherever possible.

The joint motion initiated by the Greens, the CDU, the Greens, the FDP and the Gut group (https://ratsinformation.stadt-koeln.de/getfile.asp?id=725502&type=do&) was unanimously approved by the Council on 9/7/2019.



Keywords:
Stakeholders, Building materials / Construction, DE-News, Wood construction, Climate protection, Communities, Cologne, Sustainable management, News Blog NRW, Quarters, Settlements, Environmental policy, Ecology

Wels only builds passive houses
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Wels only builds passive houses

The municipal council of the city of Wels has adopted a declaration on passive house construction. In it, the municipal council is instructed to strive for the energy-saving passive house standard in all new buildings and renovations of the city and municipal enterprises. This resolution, which was passed unanimously, was apparently inspired by the city of Frankfurt a.M., which, according to current political decisions, will only build according to the passive house standard in the future.
" nachrichten.at/regional/wels/685456



Keywords:
News Blog Europe (without DE), News Blog Austria, PlusEnergy house/settlement, Ecology

Climate Alliance: Cities worldwide declare climate emergency
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Climate Alliance: Cities worldwide declare climate emergency

Call to action

Climate Alliance calls on politicians to protect the climate with the Climate Action Call shortly before the EU elections

Stakeholders from across Europe have today launched a call for climate action. "Hundreds of cities across Europe and the world are declaring a climate emergency. They are pushing for an end to fossil fuels and the exclusive use of renewable energy to contribute to climate justice worldwide," explains Thomas Brose, Executive Director of Climate Alliance, co-signatory of the call. "It is time for current and future EU politicians to work together to turn this goal into a European reality."

The Climate Action Call was launched in the run-up to the meeting of heads of state and government on 9 May on the future of Europe and the European elections, which will take place from 23 to 26 May. In parallel, more than 200 mayors are sending an open letter to the European Council and its member states calling for a sustainable and future-proof climate policy. The signatories of the Climate Action Call are calling on current and future EU leaders to take social and municipal calls seriously, take action and make climate action a top priority.

The Climate Action Call lists the following five steps for the new EU Parliament and the Commission as well as all EU member states:

  1. reduce greenhouse gas emissions more quickly by 2030 and achieve greenhouse gas neutrality as quickly as possible.
  2. Focus on the end of fossil fuels and support energy efficiency, renewable energy and emission reductions outside the energy sector.
  3. Ensure fair and equitable structural change. Furthermore, to ensure that the EU provides greater support to developing countries in climate protection and adaptation to climate change.
  4. step up efforts to introduce the circular economy and increase resource efficiency.
  5. protect biodiversity and promote the restoration of ecosystems as a crucial component of climate protection.

Hundreds of cities, companies, investors, scientists, religious communities, sports clubs and civil society organisations from areas ranging from climate protection to human rights and health have taken up the Climate Action Call to bring about profound changes in how we organise our society and economy to keep global warming below 1.5°C.

Further information

 

Contact

Sarah Mekjian, Climate Alliance
Tel. 069- 717 139 20
Email: s.mekjian@klimabuendnis.org

The Climate Alliance

For more than 25 years, the member municipalities of the Climate Alliance have been working with their indigenous partners in the rainforests to protect the global climate. With 1,700 members from 26 European countries, the Climate Alliance is the world's largest city network dedicated to climate protection and the only one to set specific targets: Each Climate Alliance municipality has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by ten per cent every five years. As our lifestyle has a direct impact on particularly endangered peoples and places on this planet, the Climate Alliance combines local action with global responsibility.
www.klimabuendnis.org

Source: Climate Alliance press release, 07/05/2019



Keywords:
Stakeholders, Climate protection, Communities, News Blog Europe (without DE), Environmental policy, Ecology

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The heat turnaround begins in the district

Photo: IÖR

Concepts developed for urban areas

Berlin, 9 January 2020 - One of the Herculean tasks in achieving the climate targets is to radically reduce CO2 emissions from the heating supply. A research group led by the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) is showing how cities can move away from coal, oil and gas in a socially responsible way. The "Urban Heat Transition" project analysed possible contributions from renewable energies and local heat sources in Berlin's urban districts. "Waste heat from businesses, heat from waste water or geothermal energy have hardly been utilised to date. The key to such environmentally friendly heat are neighbourhood concepts and heating networks," says project manager Bernd Hirschl from the IÖW. "An important prerequisite is a more efficient building stock. Only if the heat demand is significantly reduced can environmentally friendly heat sources be utilised efficiently."

In the three-year project, the project team from the IÖW, the University of Bremen and the Technical University of Berlin worked together with the Berlin Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection with funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research to develop local heating concepts for three Berlin neighbourhoods. At the end of 2019, they discussed their results with the heating industry in Berlin, and the documentation of the conference is now available online at www.urbane-waermewende.de.

Developing nuclei for the heat transition

"Previous neighbourhood concepts were often too complex, had too many different stakeholders and often ended up in a drawer. That's why we recommend a nucleus approach," says Elisa Dunkelberg from the IÖW. These could be public buildings, new construction projects, commercial buildings or housing associations and co-operatives.

The researchers show what a neighbourhood concept can look like for an old building district in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf: Firstly, the heat demand must be reduced through energy-efficient refurbishment. The heat can be generated using a wastewater heat pump, which is partly powered by solar electricity generated on site, in combination with combined heat and power generation. "Particularly in the case of public buildings, which have a pioneering role - enshrined in law in Berlin - it should always be checked in the case of refurbishment and new buildings whether they are suitable as a nucleus for a neighbourhood concept and the co-supply of surrounding buildings," emphasises Dunkelberg.

Climate-neutral district heating: utilising waste heat and renewables

District heating plays a major role in urban areas. "To become climate-neutral, it is important to integrate more local heat sources from wastewater, river water and geothermal energy as well as waste heat into district heating," says Hirschl, adding that attention must also be paid to the resilience of the heat generation system. A joint case study with the Neukölln district heating plant shows that it is possible to utilise local heat sources. But it needs to be tested technically and requires supporting financial measures. The next steps should now be test drilling for deep geothermal energy, for example, as well as pilot plants that use large heat pumps to provide wastewater or river water heat for district heating. Strategies for funding and risk protection are needed for investment in these technologies, some of which are untested and highly expensive.

Heat transition requires municipal strategic heat planning - and social compatibility

"Municipal heat planning, which has long been standard practice in pioneering countries such as Denmark and in other federal states and municipalities for some time, helps to tap into the identified potential," emphasises Hirschl. The basis for this is a heat register that visualises heat sources such as waste water and commercial waste heat. This can also be used to identify neighbourhoods for cross-building concepts. With sector coupling, it is also important that local authorities and cities plan across infrastructures. Instruments such as urban land-use planning and urban development contracts must be geared towards climate neutrality.

Low refurbishment rates in recent years show that purely incentive-based measures are not enough to ensure energy modernisation. The researchers therefore recommend implementing the regulations more strongly and developing a step-by-step plan to guide the building stock towards climate neutrality. At the same time, subsidies must be increased and conditions for passing on rent must be made more socially acceptable. A step-by-step plan under the conditions of a rent cap must be designed in such a way that energy modernisation is economically reasonable for both landlords and tenants.

Federal Ministry of Education and Research funds "Urban Heat Transition" project for another two years

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the project in a new partner constellation for a further two years in order to test solution strategies for the central obstacles to implementation and to anchor the research results in municipal heat planning. In addition to the IÖW, the partners are Berliner Wasserbetriebe and the law firm Becker Büttner Held.



Keywords:
Stock, Blogs & Portals, CO2-neutral, DE-News, Renewable, Research, Climate protection, Quarters, Settlements, Solar thermal, Housing

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