Final report on energy sufficiency in the consumer field of construction/housing
Published
Publication of the final report
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)
Berlin: On 4 May 2018, BUND presented a shutdown plan for nuclear power plants (NPPs) and coal-fired power plants. This analysis shows that the decommissioning of the most climate-damaging coal-fired power plants by 2020 and a significant acceleration of the nuclear phase-out in Germany are possible without jeopardising security of supply. "The shutdown plan is a call to action for the political actors to finally take action," explains BUND Chair Hubert Weiger at the presentation of the shutdown plan in Berlin.
In the shutdown plan, BUND has drawn up a concrete performance balance and names power plants as well as annual figures for the shutdown. The focus is on the years 2020 and 2023. This period is considered to be a particular challenge for supply security, since on the one hand it is the legal date for the phase-out of nuclear power. On the other hand, a good half of the coal-fired power plants must be taken off the grid in order to achieve the German climate target for 2020.
The BUND shutdown plan shows that this is possible and that significantly more coal-fired power plants can be taken off the grid in the short term than has been discussed so far, and that this can also be combined with a significant acceleration of the nuclear phase-out. As a result, the power surplus in Germany is declining, but the supply remains guaranteed even in hours without sun and with little wind. "In the first quarter of 2018, Germany exported on average the electricity production of five large power plants. Against this background alone, it is surprising that the new federal government has not agreed on the short-term decommissioning of the most climate-damaging coal-fired power plants," says the BUND chairman. "We want to show with our analysis that much more is possible if the political will is there."
The BUND shutdown plan shows that security of supply can be ensured if politicians do not continue to wait, but actively promote the energy transition in parallel to the shutdowns. The calculations of the power balance are mainly based on values from, for example, the Federal Network Agency or the transmission system operators. Deviations and other assumptions are justified. "With our analysis, we want to provide an important impetus for a transparent debate within the framework of the amendment to the Atomic Energy Act and the coal phase-out commission that is being constituted," explains Weiger.
In a shutdown list for coal-fired power plants, BUND proposes the units that would have to be taken off the grid first in order to achieve the 2020 climate target. It concerns all larger coal-fired power plants that were connected to the grid before 1990, in order to reduce the coal capacity on the electricity market to 20 gigawatts. As a new measure to enable a socially acceptable coal phase-out and to safeguard security of supply in extreme situations, the environmental association proposes the introduction of an additional coal phase-out reserve of six to eight gigawatts.
"The Paris Climate Agreement requires the phase-out of coal before 2030. The federal government is responsible for achieving the climate targets, it must enshrine the phase-out in law and ensure a just structural change. To achieve the 2020 climate target, it must now launch an immediate programme. Waiting any longer is irresponsible," continued the BUND chair. Due to the inactivity of climate policy in recent years, the German "climate problem" has become increasingly acute. According to the latest emission forecasts, the German climate protection target for 2020 will be missed by ten percentage points.
At the same time as the coal phase-out, the nuclear power plants can also be taken off the grid more quickly than required by law. The seven nuclear power plants that are currently still connected to the grid represent a constant safety risk for the population and must be decommissioned as soon as possible. So far, however, the federal government does not want to use the amendment to the Atomic Energy Act to really accelerate the nuclear phase-out. "BUND demands an immediate nuclear phase-out. At the very least, the current revision of the Atomic Energy Act must be used to legally prohibit further transfers of electricity volumes," says Weiger. Without this transfer, the nuclear power plants would run for a total of ten years less and the production of 300 tonnes of highly radioactive nuclear waste would be avoided.
Getting out of nuclear power and coal and still securing the energy supply - this is possible if the energy transition is driven forward. "It is a matter of further expanding renewable energies with commitment and creating the energy-economic framework conditions for an energy turnaround that is essentially based on wind energy and photovoltaics," says Weiger. This means an expansion of flexible decentralised CHP power plants, a reduction in electricity consumption, optimised utilisation of the electricity grids and a significant increase in the possibilities for load reduction.
For the third time, the Wood Construction Award Lower Saxony competition. The aim of the state-wide competition is to strengthen the use of wood as a climate-friendly and sustainable building material, to present the current state of timber construction and to inspire future builders to build with this unique raw material. The Lower Saxony Timber Construction Award 2020 honours structures and buildings that are predominantly made of wood and wood-based materials and stand out for their high design and timber construction quality, as well as taking particular account of ecological and resource-saving aspects in the interests of sustainability.
The prize is endowed with a total of 12,000 euros and is jointly offered by the Landesmarketingfonds Holz of the 3N Kompetenzzentrum Niedersachsen Netzwerk Nachwachsende Rohstoffe und Bioökonomie e.V. and the Landesbeirat Holz Niedersachsen e.V.. An independent jury of experts will award the Lower Saxony Timber Construction Prize 2020 and present recognitions in November.
To be eligible, the projects submitted must have been completed between January 2018 and June 2020 and the structure must be located in Lower Saxony. The call for entries runs until 30 June 2020.
In addition to the motivation and background of the ecovillage movement, the film also gives a good impression of the Sieben Linden ecovillage.
The text on vimeoHow can a world beyond growth, competition and profit look like? The multimedia project "Degrowth in Bewegung(en)" shows which initiatives and movements develop and live social, ecological and democratic alternatives.
In the ecovillage Sieben Linden we met Christiane Kliemann, who tells us in an interview what makes an ecovillage, how ecovillages are politically engaged and where the relation to degrowth is.
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