A film by French philosopher Philippe Simay on arte.tv In this episode, the philosopher visits the region of Vorarlberg in Austria, the international model for ecological and sustainable architecture.
Documentary Series - 27 min:
www.arte.tv/guide/de/057411-010-A/in-der-welt-zuhause
Author of the book review: Roman Schaurhofer, Vienna
The construction volume "Commercial Buildings in Clay and Wood - Added Value through Material" was published in 2020 by Sabine Djahanschah of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (German Federal Foundation for the Environment) at Verlag Detail. The publication, which appeared in book form, deals with the use of the building materials wood and clay in the construction of commercially used buildings. To this end, six buildings with commercial use were analysed in terms of their architectural construction and technical quality features and evaluated with the help of measurements, surveys and life cycle assessments.
By way of introduction, the different techniques, construction and production methods as well as the advantages of wood and clay are discussed. After this presentation of the understanding of the different building materials as well as fossil and renewable raw materials, the authors go into more detail on the life cycle assessment or life cycle analysis. They explain the components of a life cycle assessment for buildings. Furthermore, the calculation steps and methods for the life cycle phases, the period under consideration and the final energy demand are defined. This is followed by a naming of the balances created and evaluations.
The concept, the design and the constructive aspects are examined in more detail for each of the objects examined (two office buildings, two warehouses and two workshops). In addition, the acoustics, the energy concept, the fire protection and the added value of the building are evaluated. Monitoring values for temperature, CO2-concentration or air humidity underpin the results. Finally, the life cycle assessment, the material balance, the life cycle phase comparison and the DGNB rating are explained.
Ultimately, the researchers make a case for the use of wood and clay in commercial buildings with their results and conclusions from their detailed investigations, as well as their presentation of the effects on quality of stay, indoor climate, changeability and expression.
The building examples studied also convince with impressive results when the materials are applied well. Due to the interdisciplinary approach and the wide-ranging investigations by the researchers, technically sound results and arguments that can be discussed were achieved.
At the same time, however, it must be noted that due to the different building use and material selection, the selected example projects can hardly be compared with each other. In addition, other aspects relevant to construction, such as economic possibilities or monetary aspects, are not taken into account.
They are to be understood as pilot projects, but serve as exemplary examples for increased use in commercial construction.
Nevertheless, the investigations of the buildings show the relevance of sustainable building materials in the construction of buildings.
In any case, the authors provide sound evidence why wood and/or clay should be increasingly used in the construction of buildings for commercial use and make a professionally relevant contribution to the promotion of sustainability.
First edition: 2020
Format: 167 pages, German, 21 x 27 cm, Swiss brochure
Publisher: Detail Business Information GmbH, Munich
Reading sample and ordering option:
https://shop.detail.de/de_de/dbu-bauband-3-gewerbebauten-in-lehm-und-holz
Keywords:
Building Biology, Building materials / Construction, DE-News, Business, Wood construction, Earth Building, NaWaRohs, Sustainable management, New books and studies, Resource efficiency, Urban production, Life cycle assessment
Over the past three years, the City of Munich has purchased 950 apartments from GBW's former holdings through its subsidiaries GWG and Gewofag. This is revealed in the answer to a question by City Council members Cetin Oraner and Brigitte Wolf (Die Linke).
To the full article from 18.08.2016: www.immobilien-zeitung.de/...muenchen...
Keywords:
Stock, DE-News, Communities, News Blog Bavaria, Housing policy
26 min, Available from 31/12/2020 to 07/03/2021, Film from 2017.
"New large-scale construction projects and ecological innovations ensured that Malmö today has become a prime example of the direct transition from industrial metropolis to sustainable Eco City. The secret recipe: the city relied not only on innovative technologies, but above all on the active participation of citizens in the change."
Keywords:
Greening / climate adaptation, Renewable, Expo, Movies, Movies 11 to 45 Min, IBA, Climate protection, Near-natural open space design, News Blog Sweden, Settlements, Water, Water design, Housing
Net public electricity generation reached a record share of 59.7 per cent in 2023. The share of the load was 57.1 per cent. This is the result of an analysis presented today by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. New records were set for wind and solar power in 2023. In contrast, generation from lignite (-27 per cent) and hard coal (-35 per cent) fell sharply. Photovoltaics stood out in the expansion of generation capacity: at around 14 gigawatts, the expansion was in double digits for the first time and significantly exceeded the German government's statutory climate protection target. Source of the data is the platform energy-charts.info
Photovoltaic systems generated approx. 59.9 TWh in 2023, of which 53.5 TWh was fed into the public grid and 6.4 TWh was used for self-consumption. At around 9 TWh, June 2023 was the month with the highest solar power generation ever. The maximum solar output of 40.1 GW was reached on 7 July at 13:15, which corresponded to a 68% share of electricity generation. In 2023, the expansion of photovoltaics significantly exceeded the German government's targets: instead of the planned 9 gigawatts, 13.2 gigawatts were installed by November; according to preliminary data, this will be more than 14 gigawatts by the end of 2023. This is a sharp increase compared to 2022 (7.44 GW). This means that PV expansion in Germany has reached double digits for the first time.
The Hydropower increased from 17.5 TWh in 2022 to 20.5 TWh. The installed capacity of 4.94 GW has hardly changed compared to previous years.
The Biomass at 42.3 TWh was at the level of 2022 (42.2 TWh). The installed capacity is 9 GW.
In total, the renewable energies approx. 260 TWh in 2023, around 7.2 per cent more than in the previous year (242 TWh). The share of renewable energy generated in Germany in the load, i.e. the electricity mix that actually comes out of the socket, was 57.1 per cent compared to 50.2 per cent in 2022. In addition to net public electricity generation, total net electricity generation also includes in-house generation by industry and commerce, which is mainly generated using gas. The share of renewable energies in total net electricity generation, including the power plants of "businesses in the manufacturing, mining and quarrying sectors", is around 54.9 per cent (2022: 48.2 per cent).
The Load in the electricity grid totalled 457 TWh, around 26 TWh less than in 2022. Due to the high electricity prices and higher temperatures, electricity was probably saved significantly. The increase in self-consumption of solar power is also reducing the load. The load includes the electricity consumption and grid losses, but not the pumped-storage power consumption and the self-consumption of conventional power plants.
After German coal-fired power plants ramped up their production in 2022 - due to the outage of French nuclear power plants, but also due to the distortions in the electricity market caused by the war in Ukraine - their share fell significantly in 2023. As a result, generation in November 2023 was 27 per cent below the same month in the previous year due to the drop in coal-fired electricity exports, but also because of the good wind conditions.
Overall, production from Lignite for public electricity consumption fell by around 27 per cent, from 105.9 to 77.5 TWh. This is in addition to 3.7 TWh for industrial own consumption. Gross electricity generation fell to the level of 1963.
Net production from Hard coal-fired power plants for public electricity consumption was 36.1 TWh (-35 per cent) and 0.7 TWh for industrial own consumption. It was 21.4 TWh lower than in 2022. Gross electricity generation fell to the level of 1955. Natural gas for electricity generation remained slightly below the previous year's level at 45.8 TWh for public electricity supply and 29.6 for industrial own consumption. Due to the shutdown of the last three nuclear power plants in Emsland, Neckarwestheim and Isar on 15 April 2023, the Nuclear power only contributed 6.72 TWh to electricity generation, which corresponds to a share of 1.5 per cent.
The expansion of fluctuating renewable energies also increases the need for grid expansion and storage capacity. Battery storage systems, which are installed on a decentralised basis to buffer the generation of wind and solar power, are particularly suitable. The private household segment is showing strong growth, as is the case with photovoltaic systems. Overall, installed battery capacity almost doubled from 4.4 GW in 2022 to 7.6 GW in 2023, while storage capacity rose from 6.5 GWh to 11.2 GWh. The capacity of German pumped storage plants is around 6 GW.
After an export surplus of 27.1 TWh was achieved in electricity trading in 2022, an import surplus of 11.7 TWh was recorded in 2023. This was due in particular to the lower electricity generation costs in neighbouring European countries in the summer and the high costs of CO2-certificates. The majority of imports came from Denmark (10.7 TWh), Norway (4.6 TWh) and Sweden (2.9 TWh). Germany exported electricity to Austria (5.8 TWh) and Luxembourg (3.6 TWh).
In winter, electricity exchange prices rose again and CO2-certificates became more favourable. This already led to a balance in November and, in conjunction with high wind power generation, to export surpluses in December. In contrast to its neighbouring countries (Austria, Switzerland, France), Germany also has sufficient power plant capacity in winter to produce electricity for export.
The average volume-weighted day-ahead price Exchange electricity price fell sharply to €92.29/MWh or 9.23 cents/kWh (2022: €230.57/MWh). This puts it back at the 2021 level.
A detailed presentation of the data on electricity generation, imports/exports, prices, installed capacity, emissions and climate data can be found on the Energy Charts Server:
www.energy-charts.info/downloads/Stromerzeugung_2023.pdf
The data basis
This first version of the annual evaluation takes into account all electricity generation data from the Leipzig electricity exchange EEX and the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) up to and including 31 December 2023. The quarter-hourly values from the EEX were energetically corrected using the available monthly data from the Federal Statistical Office on electricity generation up to September 2023. For the remaining months, the correction factors were estimated on the basis of past monthly and annual data. The extrapolated values from October to December are subject to larger tolerances.
This is based on the data for the German Net electricity generation to the public electricity supply. It is the difference between gross electricity generation and the power plants' own consumption and is fed into the public grid. The electricity industry calculates with net figures, e.g. for electricity trading and grid utilisation, and only net electricity generation is traded on the electricity exchanges. It represents the electricity mix that actually comes out of the socket at home.
Hourly updated data on electricity generation can be found here: https://www.energy-charts.info
Keywords:
DE-News, Renewable, Climate protection, New books and studies, PV, Environmental policy
