Since September 2014, Wagner Solar, a solar pioneer from Cölbe, has been a subsidiary of Sanderink Holding under the leadership of Dutch entrepreneur Gerard Sanderink. The business operations are continued under the name Wagner Solar GmbH. The managing director is Brigitte van Egten, a lawyer with experience in the industry.
With 65 employees at the two sites in Cölbe and Kirchhain, our solar heating, solar power, electricity storage and TRIC mounting systems divisions as well as sustainable energy technology products will continue to operate under the proven "Wagner Solar" brand.
Dr. Kirsten David, a researcher at HafenCity University (HCU) Hamburg, has developed an innovative method for determining rent increases after energy efficiency measures: By means of functional cost splitting, rent increases become appropriate and comprehensible. The planning of the energetic measures is also ecologically optimized. For her dissertation entitled "Functional Cost Splitting for the Determination of Rent Increases after Energy Efficiency Measures", the scientist today receives the "BUND Research Award 2020". With the research award, the Bund für Umwelt- und Naturschutz (BUND) honors scientific work on sustainable development.
Rent increases due to energy-efficient building modernisation are legally permissible and politically desired as an investment incentive. After all, according to the German Energy Agency (dena), around 35% of Germany's total energy consumption is attributable to the building sector. An increase in the renovation rate is therefore necessary from a climate policy perspective.
However, while the legislators assume that such measures can be implemented economically and without affecting the rent, the experience of many tenants is different: Often the rent increases exceed the saved heating and energy costs many times over. In extreme cases, tenants can no longer afford their apartments. "To this day, energy-efficient building refurbishment has a reputation as a gentrification tool," says David. With the method she developed to determine appropriate rent increases, the 45-year-old scientist also wants to contribute to an increased social acceptance of corresponding measures.
"The basis of the politically expected increase amounts is the so-called coupling principle," explains the architect. "Like the Energy Saving Ordinance, it assumes that energy efficiency measures will always be implemented when a comprehensive refurbishment is due anyway. The sticking point: only the modernization costs entitle landlords* to rent increases, but not the costs for the renovation. The latter must be deducted from the total investment sum as "anyway costs". Eight percent of the remaining costs can be passed on to the tenants as a modernisation charge.
"The current regulation is insufficient. In practice, there are manifold demarcation problems between modernisation costs relevant to rent increases and maintenance costs not relevant to rent increases," says David. The method she developed, on the other hand, focuses on the climate-relevant improvement of each individual building component compared to its condition before the construction measure. "Functional cost splitting thus corresponds to the actual basic idea of the legislators, is practicable and enables an appropriate and comprehensible allocation to modernisation or refurbishment costs," says David.
According to the scientist, her approach leads to the omission of measures that are nonsensical from a structural engineering point of view and do not bring about any climate-relevant improvement of the building components: "With my method, such measures are not relevant for rent increases and are therefore uneconomical for landlords. In addition, your calculation method ensures that the modernization levy actually approaches the level of the ancillary cost savings as a rule. The award winner is therefore particularly pleased that the sustainability aspect of her work has been recognised with the BUND Research Award: "Rental housing stock can only be developed sustainably if ecological, economic and social aspects are given equal consideration. Functional cost splitting makes a significant contribution to this."
This year, the BUND Research Award will be presented at a virtual conference. Among other things, keynote speaker and environmental scientist Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker will discuss with the three award winners how science can develop more relevance and effectiveness for sustainability goals. The transfer into practice is also an important concern for David. Her next goal is to further develop functional cost splitting into an instrument that can also be understood by laypersons - preferably as an online tool.
Personal details:
Kirsten David is a guest researcher at HCU in the subject areas "Design and Analysis of Structures" with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Annette Bögle and "Construction Economics" with Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Reinhold Johrendt as well as a lecturer in the interdisciplinary study programmes. Her doctoral thesis was supervised by Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Reinhold Johrendt and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Krüger, (subject area "Project Management and Project Development in Urban Planning") and is freely available: https://edoc.sub.uni-hamburg.de//hcu/volltexte/2019/508/.
Difu city survey "OB-Barometer 2020" gives municipalities' assessment of the future* Berlin/Cologne. Climate protection and adaptation to the consequences of climate change will become increasingly important for cities. This is one of the findings of the survey of (Lord) Mayors of large German cities* conducted by the German Institute of Urban Affairs in January and February 2020. Almost two-thirds of the respondents named climate protection as an important municipal issue for the future. This means that the number of mayors who attribute an increase in importance to this field of municipal policy action has more than tripled compared to the previous year. Future surveys will show how strongly this result was influenced by the protests of the 'Fridays for Future' movement.
More than half of the respondents also see a growing need for action in the area of mobility. This topic, which already ranked second among the future topics last year, has thus once again gained in importance for city leaders. This may also have something to do with the fact that urban mobility is an essential aspect of municipal climate protection. The top future topic of the two previous years, digitalization, is in third place in the survey among the most important future topics for municipal policy. A good third of respondents believe that digitisation will become more important for cities in the next five years. Other municipal policy issues to which the mayors attach particularly high relevance for the future are the creation of affordable housing, the financial situation of the cities and the strengthening of the economy.
City leaders agree that the future challenges facing cities will require a high level of funding. This is particularly true for the topics of mobility and climate protection. Almost 90 percent of those for whom these are key issues for the future expect to have to make large or very large investments in these areas. The situation is similar in the areas of digitisation and the creation of affordable housing: here, around three quarters of the city leaders who see digitisation and housing among the most important future issues for cities still consider the future financing requirements in these policy areas to be high or very high.
* The survey was conducted before the Corona pandemic in Germany pushed other issues into the background. Even if normality should have returned to some extent in the cities after the state of emergency, the view of the political decision-makers on the municipal world will be different. Difu will therefore publish the full results of the OB-Barometer 2020 at a later date, possibly linked to current surveys that include "Corona aspects". This report therefore focuses primarily on the sub-area of "future issues".
Heliatek, the world's leading provider of organic solar energy solutions, announces that its award-winning technology has been certified by TÜV Rheinland as having a carbon footprint of less than 16 kg CO2e/m2 in a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). For a sustainable future in the face of ever increasing climate change, the planet's growing energy needs must be met by environmentally friendly low carbon energy sources. Heliatek has developed industrial grade organic solar films that are suitable for almost any building surface and help to significantly avoid greenhouse gas emissions.
After less than 3 months, the organic solar films studied already save the CO2e (CO2 equivalent) produced during the entire life cycle, from production to disposal. "We can proudly announce that we offer one of the most environmentally friendly ways to generate electricity and significantly avoid greenhouse gas emissions. The unique composition of our organic solar films without toxic materials and with PET based protective films makes even the disposal of the modules at the end of their life easy and at the same time environmentally conscious," says Guido van Tartwijk, CEO of Heliatek.
In order to compare the carbon footprint with other solar technologies, all results must be converted into g CO2e/kWh. This value takes into account the lifetime electricity generation for a given location. For Southern Europe, HeliaSol® has a carbon footprint of only 5-7 g CO2e/kWh (7-9 g CO2e/kWh in Central Europe) and thus already significantly undercuts all current solar technologies.
Fig.: Heliatek
Global Carbon Footprint of HeliaSol®
Standard modules based on crystalline silicon achieve values of 40 - 100 g CO2e/kWh depending on the installation site and the origin of the modules. "With the planned improvement in our efficiency, we will further reduce the carbon footprint of our product to become the energy source with the lowest CO2 footprint - including hydropower, wind and solar energy. This is a truly green product," says Jan Birnstock, CTO of Heliatek.
Heliatek is currently installing the new production line for the series production of its unique OPV solar films. The production line is in the start-up phase and will produce organic solar films with an annual capacity of up to 1 million m² from mid-2020.
About the TÜV Rheinland life cycle assessment
TÜV Rheinland has certified Heliatek's HeliaSol® , as one of the first companies in the solar industry, in a life cycle assessment according to ISO 14040/44. This analysis provides a structured and comprehensive method for quantifying energy and material flows and their potential environmental impact. The LCA analyzes the environmental impact of all phases of a product's life, from raw material procurement, through production and use, to disposal at the end of the product's life, including all transport and delivery routes ("cradle-to-grave"). All site-related conversions of the TÜV values were carried out by Heliatek.
The TÜV Rheinland certificate is available online at the ID number below and can be accessed by scanning the following QR code:
About Heliatek
As the technology leader in organic photovoltaics, Heliatek develops, produces and distributes industrial organic PV solar solutions for almost any building surface (horizontal, vertical, curved, rigid and flexible). Heliatek is synonymous with energy solutions designed for various traditional applications that were previously impossible due to their unique properties - they are ultra-light, flexible and truly green. HeliaSol® is a ready-made solution, ideal for retrofitting existing buildings. HeliaFilm® is a tailor-made solar film for companies in the construction and building materials industries, which can be integrated into their façade or roofing system products. Heliatek currently employs around 150 people at its sites in Dresden and Ulm in Germany.
Research and development work as well as the installation of production technology were supported by the Free State of Saxony, the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Union.
Can the world still be saved? Anyone who sees the new documentary "Tomorrow" will believe afterwards: Yes, it is - if we only commit ourselves to it.
Global warming, exploitation of resources, population growth - our planet is dangerously close to the tipping point in many respects. This is what moved actress Mélanie Laurent and French activist Cyril Dion to make their film "Tomorrow": when they read a study predicting the collapse of our civilization in the next 40 years, they did not want to accept this scenario. So they set out: to find ideas and approaches worldwide that could inspire the population and move them to action.
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