In Jerry Yudelson's latest book, "Reinventing Green Building: Why Certification Systems Aren't Working and What We Can Do About It," published in June 2016, the American pioneer of sustainable building writes that certification systems are not advancing the needed sustainable development in the building sector quickly and substantially enough.
This has been shown by the experience of certification systems for sustainable building such as the DGNB, BREEAM and above all LEED seals of approval in recent decades. On the one hand, they are becoming increasingly widespread and their standards and methods are being perfected - on the other hand, they are becoming more and more expensive and complex.
Jerry Yudelson was described by WIRED magazine as the American "Godfather of Green". He is regarded as one of the pioneers of the green building movement in the USA at the end of the 1990s and played a key role in founding the first local chapter of the US Green Building Council in Seattle. The long-time LEED Fellow has trained around 4,000 professionals from the construction industry on the LEED system during his active time. Between 2014 and 2015, he was President of the Green Building Initiative (GBI), a non-profit organisation that provides the Green Globes green building rating system and programme in America. (Source: greenimmo.de)
Yudelsons says the maths is simple: there are 5.5 million buildings in the US, of which about 35,000 are LEED certified today. That's less than 0.7% of the building stock and that's after 15 years of a lot of hard work. It is relatively simple and very clear that we will never achieve the CO2 reduction targets this way. In addition, we have no documentation and no studies, NOTHING! The big challenge ahead of us is the existing buildings and the property market. He goes on to say in his book that it is a misconception that certifications can save the planet.
Yudelson also offers a solution in the book. A data-driven strategy that utilises the latest cloud-based technologies to reduce certification costs by 90% or more. This could achieve a market uptake to 50% of all buildings by 2025.
The city of Bonn has received the Blue Sky Award for its commitment to sustainable development, environmental and climate protection, also on an international level. Mayor Reinhard Limbach accepted the award on Thursday, 29 August 2019, in the Chinese special economic zone Shenzhen.
The award is presented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Blue Sky Awards Organizing Committee to cities and individuals that have made a special contribution to climate protection.
Internationally, Bonn is involved, among other things, in the city network for sustainability ICLEI, which has its headquarters in the federal city and whose president is Lord Mayor Ashok Sridharan. In addition, the city - funded by Engagement Global - is working together with the cities of La Paz (Bolivia), Cape Coast (Ghana) and Linares (Chile) under the heading "Municipal Climate Protection Partnerships". Topics include strategies and measures for adapting to climate change, the use of renewable energies and education for sustainable development. In Chengdu (China), an exchange on climate protection issues was held together with civil society organisations.
With its own sustainability strategy, which was adopted at the beginning of the year, Bonn wants to contribute to the systematic implementation of the United Nations' Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. And in early summer, the city launched a new participatory campaign on climate protection under the motto "Think new. Simply act. Together for the climate." shows that climate-friendly action can be very simple and enrich one's own life.
Coalition of cities to promote a sustainable circular economy
Mayor Limbach also participated in the launch event of the Green Circular Cities Coalition of the international city network ICLEI. This is a coalition of cities for the promotion of a sustainable circular economy, in which the cities of Bonn, Turku (Finland), Shenzhen (PR China) as well as Yokohama and Nagano (Japan), among others, participate.
Limbach discussed the topic of urban transformation/circular economy with international city representatives. In doing so, he presented projects and approaches of the city of Bonn in waste avoidance and the recycling of valuable resources. Also on the agenda of the two-day visit was a presentation of the Shenzhen city bus transport system, which is entirely electric, and a modern combined heat and power plant powered by waste.
However, the regulatory framework remains unsuitable for the widespread market deployment of energy storage systems.
The industry figures published annually by BVES show a fundamentally positive development in retrospect for 2020 and in the forecast for 2021. Across all technologies and segments, sales in the energy storage industry grew by over 10 percent to EUR 7.1 billion in 2020.
The growth drivers are the trends towards system integration, flexible sector coupling and electromobility, particularly in the household and commercial sectors. 300,000 home storage units alone are now installed in households and ensure a secure self-supply of green energy in the electricity, heating and mobility sectors. 300,000 home storage units provide 2.3 GWh of green electricity, enough for the annual washing of more than 20,000 households or to drive an e-car around the world more than 170 times.
Urban Windelen, Federal Managing Director BVES: "An addition of over 100,000 home storage units alone in one year is a great result. And at the same time a clear signal that citizens in households, commerce and industry increasingly want to rely on storage technologies to make their energy supply secure, green and cost-efficient. Politicians should finally listen to this signal and provide the highly innovative German storage industry with a suitable framework for its products. Relying solely on grid expansion and squeezing people into an outdated energy system will not be enough for a successful energy transition."
While the household segment was able to grow disproportionately in the Corona year 2020, the industrial and commercial storage segment suffered a decline of around 20 percent due to the pandemic. Germany also continues to evade the international trend towards the increased use of large-scale storage in the system infrastructure. This market segment is stagnating at a low level. The trend towards hydrogen solutions finds a difficult environment in Germany, so that market applications on an industrial scale cannot (yet) establish themselves. In contrast, thermal storage systems are developing well and are increasingly being used in industry in particular, contributing to decarbonisation.
Overall, the industry expects a significant recovery of the storage market in the industrial segment in 2021. The drivers here are flexible sector coupling in the direction of heat, the trend towards electromobility with clever charging solutions including storage, and self-supply solutions with green electricity to green hydrogen.
"Without energy storage, the energy transition is missing something. This is becoming increasingly obvious. Technically, the industry can do pretty much anything. Various technologies for all sectors and all applications are ready and operational. Now all that needs to be done is to finally release the regulatory brakes. Especially if we want to secure and support the domestic technical excellence and high value creation of the industry in Germany and Europe." says Urban Windelen.
The BVES industry figures 2021 are available via this link available.
The occasion for the publication is the international conference ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS 2021, organized by BVES in cooperation with Energy Storage Europe and EUROSOLAR e.V.. The two-day online conference ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS 2021 will feature parallel discussion panels and workshops on current trends in the storage industry.
Source: PM of the Bundesverband Energiespeicher from
NATURSTROM is expanding its largest local heating project to date in Markt Erlbach, Franconia. In future, the eco-energy supplier will supply more than 130 customers with sustainable and locally generated heat - not only households but also municipal buildings and a large commercial enterprise. On 2,400 m2 Bavaria's largest solar thermal plant is being built for this purpose.
In the current second construction phase, NATURSTROM is connecting more than 70 new heat consumers, including the largest customer, the honey bottler Breitsamer & Ulrich GmbH & Co. KG. The company is providing the land for an energy centre and Bavaria's largest solar thermal plant with an area of 2,400 m2 available.
"The current turbulence on the European energy markets shows that we in Germany absolutely have to make ourselves less dependent on imports of fossil fuels," says NATURSTROM CEO Dr Tim Meyer. "With the heating turnaround towards decentralised renewable energies, we are not only doing the climate a great favour, but also ourselves and our economy. The local heating supply in Markt Erlbach is a great example of how the changeover can succeed."
Since 2019, NATURSTROM has been supplying 40 consumers with ecological heat at long-term stable prices via a wood pellet heating centre. After completion of the second construction phase, the local heating network will be 6.4 kilometres long. In addition to numerous private households and the Breitsamer company, the heat consumers also include smaller businesses and municipal buildings such as the school, the indoor swimming pool and an event hall. "We are pleased that so many and such different players in Markt Erlbach want to be part of the local heat turnaround," says Meyer.
After connecting all consumers, the total heat demand in the network is around 5,350 megawatt hours (MWh) per year; by covering this demand from renewable sources, approx. 1,800 tonnes of CO2 saved. In addition to solar heat, NATURSTROM uses wood pellets from the region as fuel in the existing energy centre, and regional wood in the form of wood chips will also be used in the second energy centre once the second construction phase is completed. "With the raw material supply from the region, we can provide affordable and sustainable energy for our citizens in the long term. Especially for future generations, it is important to act decisively for climate protection," emphasises Markt Erlbach's First Mayor Dr Birgit Kreß.
The two energy centres and the local heating network are designed to be open to new technologies, so that modernisation and expansion to supply new consumers are possible.
The impetus for planning the local heating supply came from a renovation of the main street. The connection to the local heating network will mainly replace old, climate-damaging oil heating systems. Particularly due to the lack of gas supply infrastructure, more than 80 percent of the inhabitants in Markt Erlbach still used heating oil before the start of the first construction phase.
In a recently written short study, scientists from the Department of Energy System Analysis at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE prepared an evaluation of the Market Master Data Register (MaStR) and the EEG system master data for photovoltaics (PV). Important findings of the analyses were that with 38 percent of the newly installed capacity, the increase in capacity in Germany is increasingly taking place in the segment of rooftop systems larger than 100 kW, 22 percent of the newly built PV systems are erected in a west, east or east-west direction and 19 percent of these systems have tilt angles smaller than 20 degrees.
Relative shares of the different orientations in the construction of new plants. Source: Own calculation based on MaStR data registered as of 31.01.2019 (as of 03.03.2020).
The Market Master Data Register (MaStR) is the register for the German electricity and gas market. Since January 2021, all electricity generation units connected to the general supply grid must be entered in it. This also applies to the steadily growing number of photovoltaic systems in Germany. In addition to the master data on output and location of a PV system, which has already been recorded in the Renewable Energy Sources Act register (EEG system master data), the market master data register records further information such as orientation, inclination and output limitation.
These parameters have now been analyzed by scientists at Fraunhofer ISE. The evaluation covers the period from 2000 to the present day and shows the development over time in terms of number, power, location by federal state, orientation, inclination and power limitation. Different evaluation criteria were taken into consideration, which allow statements to be made on the following aspects: Plant addition, power addition by plant class, plant addition by federal state, plant orientation and inclination angle.
Fraunhofer ISE evaluates these central parameters at regular intervals and makes the results publicly available. In addition, the Institute offers further evaluations of this database on request.
82 percent of the added systems are smaller than 10 kW
The evaluation of the installation of new systems by system class essentially shows that the <10 kW size range has remained constant since 2014 with an average share of 82 percent. Rooftop systems over 10 and up to 100 kW had a heyday between 2004 and 2011, when their share of new installations - in relation to the number of systems - averaged 43 percent.
Growing part of the added capacity is due to large rooftop systems
When examining the increase in capacity by plant class, it becomes clear that the high share of the <10 kW plant class in terms of the number of plants is only reflected in a high increase in capacity to a limited extent. The share of the plant class has remained fairly constant at an average of 19 percent since 2014. One system segment whose relative share of capacity growth has increased sharply is the system class of rooftop systems from 100 to 750 kW. From 17 percent in 2012, their share has more than doubled to 38 percent in 2019. In contrast, the importance of ground-mounted systems has declined from 45 percent in 2012 to 20 percent in 2019.
More than half of the PV systems will no longer be built in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg
The two states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg accounted for an average of 59.6 percent of new installations in Germany between 2000 and 2009, and this share declined to an average of 44.5 percent between 2010 and 2019. Over the same periods, North Rhine-Westphalia increased its average contribution from 14.1 to 18.3 percent, Lower Saxony's share rose from 6.5 to 9.2 percent, and Brandenburg's share increased from 0.7 to 2.2 percent. All the remaining federal states also recorded increases, albeit to a lesser extent. Despite the decline in their share, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg remain in first and second place in terms of new installations in 2019, with 24.4 percent and 18.6 percent respectively. This is followed by North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Hesse with 17.9 percent, 9.2 percent and 6.1 percent respectively.
73 percent of newly installed PV systems are limited in their capacity
Only around a quarter of the newly installed plants in 2019 do not have any output limitation. According to the EEG, 66 percent of newly installed plants may only feed a maximum of 70 percent of their output into the grid because they do not have remotely controllable feed-in management. This proportion has grown by an average of 4 percentage points per year since 2014. The remaining output-limited plants have even higher limitations of 60 to 50 percent as a result of the combination with a battery storage system.
Increasing proportion of PV systems facing east and west
While the share of PV systems with southern orientation decreased from 61 percent in 2000 to 42 percent in 2019, the share of systems with eastern and western orientation increased at almost the same rate: east from 1 percent in 2000 to 7 percent in 2019, west from 3 percent in 2000 to 9 percent in 2019, east-west from 1 percent in 2000 to 6 percent in 2019.
Plants are increasingly being built with a lower angle of inclination.
The share of added PV systems (rooftop and ground-mounted) with a tilt angle of less than 20 degrees averaged 10 percent between the years 2000 and 2009. Subsequently, between 2010 and 2019, the share increased to an average of 19 percent. Systems with 20 to 40 degrees of tilt accounted for an average of 63 percent between 2000 and 2009, falling to 54 percent between 2010 and 2019.
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In Jerry Yudelson's latest book, "Reinventing Green Building: Why Certification Systems Aren't Working and What We Can Do About It," published in June 2016, the American pioneer of sustainable building writes that certification systems are not advancing the needed sustainable development in the building sector quickly and substantially enough.
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