Purchase premium in Munich now also for private eCargobikes
Published
From January 2017, the state capital Munich will also pay up to 2,000 euros in purchase premiums for privately used eCargobikes.
On 1 April 2016, the Munich-based Electromobility funding guideline into force. It introduced purchase premiums for commercial e-vehicles from pedelecs to e-cars. Since then, there has been a subsidy of 25 percent of the purchase price up to a maximum of 1000 euros for commercially used eCargobikes. In the first five months 86 applications approved. In addition, there is a 1000 euro scrapping premium if a car with an internal combustion engine is demonstrably permanently withdrawn from circulation.
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.
The Federal Cabinet today adopted the so-called Easter Package at the proposal of Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Robert Habeck. This is the largest amendment to energy policy legislation in decades. The Easter Package comprehensively amends various energy laws in order to accelerate and consistently drive forward the expansion of renewable energies.
Robert Habeck on this: "The Easter package is the accelerator for the expansion of renewable energies. We will almost double the share of renewable energies in gross electricity consumption within less than a decade. We are tripling the speed of renewable expansion - on water, on land and on the roof. In the future, renewable energies will be in the public interest and serve public security. This is crucial to increase the pace. Overall, with the Easter Package we are creating the conditions for Germany's energy security and energy sovereignty. At the same time, it lays the foundations for Germany to become climate neutral."
Habeck further explained: "The Easter Package is part of our agenda and has been worked on under high pressure over the past months. It has now taken on a double urgency in view of Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine, which is contrary to international law. On the one hand, the climate crisis is coming to a head. On the other hand, Russia's invasion shows how important it is to get out of fossil fuels and to consistently push ahead with the expansion of renewables. We are doing this courageously and consistently.
The Easter package adopted today by the Federal Cabinet will now be forwarded to the German Bundestag and will enter the parliamentary legislative process in a next step. It is an article law, which comprises the following individual laws on more than 500 pages:
the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG),
the Wind Energy at Sea Act (WindSeeG),
the Energy Industry Act (EnWG),
the Federal Requirements Plan Act (BBPlG),
The Transmission Grid Expansion Acceleration Act (NABEG)
other laws and ordinances in energy law.
What concrete measures does the Easter package contain?
At the heart of the package is the principle that the use of renewable energies is in the overriding public interest and serves public safety. The expansion of renewable energies on land and at sea is raised to a completely new level. By 2030, at least 80 percent of Germany's gross electricity consumption is to be sourced from renewables.
Extensive measures are being taken to promote the expansion of renewable energy. For example, new areas are being made available for the expansion of photovoltaics, the participation of municipalities in onshore wind and photovoltaics is being expanded, low-wind locations are being developed more intensively and the framework conditions for the expansion of photovoltaic roof systems are being improved.
In future, the expansion of offshore wind energy is to be based on two equal pillars. In addition to the tendering of areas that have already been pre-surveyed, areas that have not yet been pre-surveyed will also be tendered in future.
The expansion of renewable energies and the grids will be accelerated by removing obstacles and streamlining planning and approval procedures.
The federal requirement plan for the expansion of the transmission grids is being updated and new projects are being included so that the grids can keep pace with the expansion of renewable energies.
With the abolition of the EEGAt the same time, the regulations for self-consumption and the privileged treatment of industry are enormously simplified and a major contribution is made to reducing the bureaucracy of energy law.
The rights of end customers and the Federal Network Agency's supervisory options over energy suppliers are strengthened in order to protect electricity and gas consumers even better in the future.
An overview paper on the Easter Package and the draft laws can be found at here.
The associations and organisations involved in the Building Alliance (Graphic: NABU)
The energy transition in the building sector has stalled. Less and less is being invested in energy-efficient refurbishment and the Paris climate protection targets are in jeopardy. The reason for this is inadequate advice and the uncertainty of many consumers on the one hand, as well as inadequate government regulations and poorly managed subsidies on the other. For almost two years now, the Building Alliance, an association of environmental and consumer organisations with energy consultants, tradesmen, trade unions, the building industry, architects' associations and the construction industry, has been positioning itself against this. Under the leadership of the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), numerous natureplus members such as BUND, BAUM e.V. and IG Bau are also working together in favour of more climate protection in the building sector.
In a recent statement, the Building Alliance calls on a new German government to "make the neglected third of the energy transition in the building sector an integral part of an integrated climate protection and energy policy". So far, politicians have "missed the opportunity to make energy-efficient building refurbishment the largest value creation and value retention programme in Germany and thus a real job engine for the domestic economy", criticises Jörg-Andreas Krüger, Deputy Federal Managing Director of NABU. Residential and non-residential buildings must now be addressed more strongly and more specifically than before by the three pillars of "information and advice", "support" and "demand".
A "lack of prioritisation and reliability" has unsettled investors, homeowners, tradespeople and businesses. In order to create reliability, "more transparency is needed in the assessment of buildings" through a standardised, optimised energy performance certificate. In addition, "high-quality, quality-assured advice from trained experts" in accordance with national standards is needed. Politicians must "set the course for reliable and permanent funding for high-quality consulting services and refurbishment measures". The refurbishment costs should be "shared equally between the state, landlords and tenants". At the same time, however, "new, market-based incentives are needed to mobilise additional investment and provide smart incentives", concludes NABU.
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