Groundbreaking ceremony for IBA energy storage facility in Heidelberg
Published
Energy and future storage Pfaffengrund model street view. Fig.: Stadtwerke Heidelberg
On Monday, 17 July 2017, a symbolic ground-breaking ceremony took place for the IBA's flagship project on the Stadtwerke Heidelberg site in Pfaffengrund. Heidelberg's Lord Mayor Prof. Dr. Eckart Würzner, Heidelberg's First Mayor Jürgen Odszuck, Dr. Rudolf Irmscher, Managing Director of Stadtwerke Heidelberg, Michael Teigeler, Managing Director of Stadtwerke Heidelberg Energie and project partners - accompanied by 180 guests - gave the symbolic starting signal for the project. The energy and future storage facility of Stadtwerke Heidelberg was recently awarded a prize as a project of the International Building Exhibition (IBA): On the recommendation of the international board of trustees, the IBA supervisory board has selected the energy and future storage facility as one of the projects that the IBA Heidelberg will continue to support intensively and whose challenging realisation is now pending. With LAVA-Laboratory for visionary architecture and A24 Landschaftsarchitekten (both Berlin), an international, innovative architectural firm won the competition. During a round of talks at the ground-breaking ceremony, the managing director of the IBA Heidelberg, Prof. Michael Braum, and Jürgen Odszuck presented the IBA project certificate to Michael Teigeler. The storage facility is scheduled to go into operation by the end of 2019.
The number of CarSharing customers in Germany rose to 2.46 million over the course of last year. Above-average percentage growth was recorded by station-based CarSharing services. Station-based CarSharing also remains the backbone of the expansion in terms of area and is now available at 740 locations in Germany.
At the beginning of 2019, 2.46 million customers in Germany are registered with a car-sharing service, 350,000 more than in the previous year. Station-based car sharing providers are experiencing above-average growth with an increase of 21.5 percent. In free-floating CarSharing, customer growth is slowing somewhat and amounts to 14.9 percent. Overall, CarSharing in Germany continues to be on a clear growth path.
Graphic: bcs
Gunnar Nehrke, Managing Director of Bundesverband CarSharing e.V., comments:
"The positive development in the German CarSharing market over the past years shows: More and more people want to deal responsibly with the resource car and practically shape the traffic turnaround."
The association is particularly pleased with the strong growth in the area of station-based CarSharing services, as several scientific studies had shown in 2018 that this variant has a particularly high traffic-relieving effect. Association Managing Director Nehrke explains:
"In station-based CarSharing, 70 to 80 percent of customers no longer own a car. Cities and municipalities should specifically promote this variant by setting up CarSharing stations in public areas.
In connection with CarSharing funding, the association criticises the Federal Ministry of Transport: "Even one and a half years after the Carsharing Act (CsgG) came into force, cities and municipalities cannot practically apply this law in all points because the Ministry does not present the ordinances that are the basis for it.
Christian Hochfeld, Director of Agora Verkehrswende, explains the current development of CarSharing:
"It is important that CarSharing becomes visible and available in public spaces. However, CarSharing should not be seen as an individual measure, but as an integral part of a municipal mobility strategy. After all, the right traffic policy framework conditions - such as comprehensive parking space management and the expansion of environmental zones - can further strengthen the positive effects of CarSharing services."
Strong growth also on the supply side
20,200 CarSharing vehicles will be available in Germany at the beginning of 2019, 2,250 more than in the previous year. Station-based providers account for more than half of the supply with 11,200 vehicles, while 9,000 vehicles will be used in free-floating CarSharing.
In the "free-floating" market segment, 890 vehicles belong to combined station-based/free-floating offerings. This new form of offering is used by some formerly purely station-based providers in order to be able to offer the advantages of both CarSharing variants from a single source. New combined systems were launched in 2018 in Leipzig and Karlsruhe, for example.
Station-based CarSharing remains the backbone of CarSharing expansion
Graphic: bcs
Station-based CarSharing is currently available at 740 locations in Germany. This is 63 locations more than in the previous year. Pure free-floating services are currently available in seven metropolitan areas and a few surrounding communities of these major cities.
E-share stagnates at a high level, more e-vehicles in the fleets of station-based providers
Graphic: bcs
The number of electric vehicles in the German CarSharing fleet remained almost unchanged in 2018. However, there are shifts in the number of electric vehicles in the individual fleet segments: The number of electric vehicles in the free-floating fleets of car manufacturers remained largely unchanged at 1,025 vehicles. The medium-sized CarSharing providers in the station-based sector were able to increase the number of electric vehicles from 321 to 498.
On the other hand, the operators of pure e-car sharing projects recorded declines. Here, the number of vehicles fell from 431 to 304. This is mainly due to the fact that the period of public funding or the leasing contracts for a high number of vehicles expired in 2018. As the vehicles had not reached the threshold for economic viability, they were removed from the fleet. Gunnar Nehrke explains:
"The electric share in CarSharing is 50 times higher than in the national car fleet. This shows: The providers want to switch to emission-free drives. But the framework conditions are not yet right: the vehicles are still too expensive. And there is still no funding concept for the installation of charging infrastructure at car sharing stations."
In its 2.10.2017 published opinion the German Advisory Council on the Environment calls on the incoming German government to initiate the coal phase-out without delay. The upcoming legislative period offers the last chance to set the course for an appropriate implementation of the Paris climate goals in Germany.
"Germany must reduce power generation from coal as quickly as possible and end it in the medium term, otherwise the climate targets in Germany cannot be achieved. The structurally compatible coal phase-out should therefore be initiated immediately. The last power plant must be taken off the grid in 20 years at the latest," explains Prof. Claudia Kemfert.
The basis of the coal phase-out should be a budget of the total amount of greenhouse gases that may still be emitted by coal-fired power plants until their final shutdown. This amount should be fixed by law. "From a scientific point of view, the remaining emissions budget for coal-fired power generation in Germany should be 2,000 megatonnes of CO2 Prof. Wolfgang Lucht specifies.
In its report, the SRU proposes a phase-out in three phases: The most emission-intensive power plants should be taken off the grid by 2020. On this basis, more modern plants could continue to operate at reduced capacity until about 2030 to ensure security of supply and to preserve jobs. In the 2030s, these power plants should then also be decommissioned. The federal government must now define the framework for this.
Climate protection and the shaping of structural change must go hand in hand. A long-term and structured phase-out path offers those affected planning security and can ensure that the burden is shared as fairly as possible. The phase-out path and its structural policy support should therefore be discussed in a commission together with the affected regions, companies, trade unions and environmental protection associations.
The German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) has been advising the German government on environmental policy issues for almost 45 years. The Council's composition of seven professors from different disciplines ensures a scientifically independent and comprehensive assessment, both from a scientific and technical perspective as well as from an economic, legal and health science perspective.
The Council currently consists of the following members:
Prof. Dr Claudia Hornberg (Chair), Bielefeld University
Prof. Dr Manfred Niekisch (Vice-Chairman), Goethe University and Frankfurt Zoological Garden
Prof. Dr. Christian Calliess, Free University of Berlin
Prof. Dr. Claudia Kemfert, Hertie School of Governance and German Institute for Economic Research
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Lucht, Humboldt University Berlin and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lamia Messari-Becker, University of Siegen
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vera Susanne Rotter, Technical University Berlin
German Advisory Council on the Environment, Berlin www.umweltrat.de
The project "Energy sufficiency - strategies and instruments for a technical, systemic and cultural transformation to sustainably limit energy demand in the building/housing consumer environment", funded by the BMBF, was successfully completed at the end of 2016. The project investigated how energy-efficient everyday routines, social practices and lifestyle aspects can be harmonised with the requirements of sustainable development and how the structural and political framework conditions must be designed so that energy sufficiency becomes more acceptable and practicable in everyday life. Reduction potentials for household electricity consumption were quantified for the three energy sufficiency approaches of reduction, substitution and adaptation.
The results were presented in the form of sufficiency spectra for selected fields of application. Subsequently, policy approaches to support energy sufficiency in private households were analysed and proposals for an integrated package of policy instruments for energy efficiency and sufficiency were developed. The findings of the project have been incorporated into an internet-based household electricity check, a handbook on sustainable product design for the appliance industry and the development of proposals for national and EU instruments to reduce electricity consumption and promote municipal climate protection.
Project partner:
ifeu Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg gGmbH (ifeu)
Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy gGmbH (WI)
Berlin University of the Arts/Design Research Lab (UdK)
Research Centre for Sustainability and Climate Policy (FNK)
A research project conducted by natureplus in conjunction with IFEU compares insulation materials with regard to their environmental impact throughout their entire life cycle, including recovery and recycling.
Which insulation material is the best? This question is extremely popular in the construction industry and can ultimately only be answered in the context of the respective construction. In particular, there has so far been a lack of a holistic overview that enables builders and planners to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the various insulation material alternatives in terms of their life cycle assessment, without having to disregard subsequent disposal. Such a study was presented by ifeu (Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg) and natureplus e.V. at the end of 2019. Their research project "Holistic Evaluation of Different Insulation Alternatives" was funded by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (dbu) and the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment. It is to be presented for the first time on 21 February as part of the Vienna BauZ! congress.
From the cradle to the grave
With this study, a comprehensive ecological evaluation of insulation material alternatives was carried out, especially with regard to possible future disposal paths of the insulation materials (from the "cradle to the grave"). The most common types of insulation materials based on mineral, renewable and synthetic raw materials were evaluated, and their application in different building components to meet specified requirements for thermal and cold protection was compared. The life cycle assessment data of the insulation materials for the manufacturing phase were taken from the natureplus partner IBO Vienna after researching various databases. Subsequently, the waste life cycle assessments were prepared by ifeu, in which, in addition to the processing loads, the respective benefits from the secondary products or energy recovery were quantified and included in the balance. For each insulation material, the most favourable disposal option from an ecological point of view was determined. These disposal options were included in the product life cycle assessments and the final disposal of the insulation material was also taken into account.
Material recycling hardly takes place
The waste life cycle assessments of all insulation materials show in most cases the specific advantages of material recycling and thus the sense of returning the waste masses to the economic cycle. The processed waste masses from the insulating materials can be further processed into (other) products or also returned to the original production as raw material. In particular, the recycling of synthetic and some mineral insulating materials significantly reduces the ecological rucksack that these products bring with them from the production phase. Material recycling also makes sense in the case of products made from renewable raw materials, although their use as substitute fuel in cement works is currently still more advantageous from the point of view of climate protection as long as hard coal is burned there instead. In practice, however, the recycling of insulation materials is only practised in isolated cases or for research purposes. The report therefore concludes that research and development of possible material recycling should be promoted in industry and in the field of waste disposal.
In the result Advantages for insulating materials from renewable raw materials
If material recycling takes place at the end of the product's life - contrary to current practice - blow-in insulation materials and flexible mats based on hemp or jute perform best, provided that all insulation types can be used, followed by polystyrene EPS boards and wood fibre mats. Where, as for example on the exterior wall, only board-type insulation materials can be used, EPS performs best, provided that the EPS is recycled in such a way that EPS beads are saved in a subsequent application.
If end-of-life disposal is as in the status quo and the energy benefit is included in waste incineration, the above-mentioned products made from renewable raw materials remain in the lead, but polystyrene deteriorates and dry-process wood-fibre insulation boards improve, even moving into first place on the exterior wall. Without taking into account the energy benefit, wood fibre boards and EPS insulation materials lose their advantages compared to other board and mat insulation materials.
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