PV systems in NRW produce electricity for over 1 million households
Published
4.25 TWh from solar energy in NRW last year
Düsseldorf. 4.25 terawatts (TWh)! This is how much electricity was produced last year (2017) by the photovoltaic systems installed in North Rhine-Westphalia. This corresponds to the average annual electricity demand of more than 1 million four-person households. In total, there are 8.7 million households in NRW.
At the end of last year, PV systems with a total of around 4.64 megawatt peak (MWpeak) were installed in NRW. Compared to the previous year, this represents an increase of more than 3.5 percent. This means that around 136 kWpeak are installed per square kilometre of state surface in NRW. According to data from the North Rhine-Westphalia State Office for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection (LANUV), there is an average irradiation of 916 kWh per kWpeak per year in the most populous state in Germany. "Photovoltaics has established itself as an attractive option for energy generation due to the technical developments of recent years. The combination of PV with storage technology is also increasingly interesting as a solution for own power consumption in private and industrial applications", says Carl Georg Graf von Buquoy of EnergyAgency.NRW.
Although the construction of PV systems in Germany has been declining in recent years, the construction of solar systems and solar power production have been increasing again for the past two years. The share of electricity generation in Germany from renewable energies was around 38 percent in 2017, with photovoltaics accounting for 7.2 percent nationwide and 2.6 percent in NRW. The PV systems installed in Germany produced a total of around 40 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, thus mathematically covering the annual electricity requirements of over 10.5 million households. With the PV capacity of around 4,640 MWpeak installed in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2017, the state ranked third in a Germany-wide comparison behind Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.
After one and a half years of consultation, the black-green Hessian state government has adopted its Climate Protection Plan 2025. According to the plan, greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced by 30 percent by 2020, by 40 percent by 2025 and by at least 90 percent by 2050 (compared to the base year 1990). By achieving these goals, Hessen wants to become climate neutral by the middle of the century and contribute to national and international climate protection efforts.
The measures include, among others, the "storage of carbon in durable wood and fibre products and substitution of energy-intensive materials with wood and fibre products". To implement this, the state of Hesse wants to explicitly support timber construction and promote innovative timber products through funding programmes. In addition, timber construction and the use of wood are to be further promoted by reviewing building regulations and the state's procurement guideline.
The study "Greenhouse gas balancing of timber buildings -implementation of new requirements for life cycle assessments and determination of empirical substitution factors (GHG timber construction)" led by Prof. Dr. Annette Hafner (RuhrUni Bochum) has now been published.
Great joy in Aachen: One of the central urban development projects is awarded special federal funding.
Mayor Sibylle Keupen: "This is a super message for our city!"
The Büchel old town quarter is one of 24 projects nationwide that are now being supported with a total of 75 million euros.
98 cities and municipalities had applied.
A most welcome piece of news reached the city of Aachen this morning (17 March 2021): Federal Minister Horst Seehofer has announced this year's selection of the "National Projects of Urban Development" and announced that the development of the Büchel old town quarter will receive up to 5.5 million euros in funding. Aachen is thus one of four municipalities in NRW to have been awarded the contract. With the amount of funding, the city is in third place nationwide.
Great news from Berlin: The federal government wants to support the development of the Büchel in Aachen's city centre with up to 5.5 million euros. Photo: City of Aachen / Andreas Herrmann
OBin Keupen: "We feel the spirit of optimism!"
"This is a great message for our city," says Mayor Sibylle Keupen in her first reaction. "We have long felt the spirit of optimism around the Büchel in Aachen. The demolition of the multi-storey car park is imminent, the planning workshop was a great success, many groundbreaking political decisions have been made, and more are on the horizon. Above all, many city makers are on board and want to be involved in a very concrete way. They want to participate, to shape, to plan, to build. The fact that this high level of commitment of all those involved here on site has now also triggered such a response at federal level encourages us to continue on the path of 'making a city at Büchel'."
City Planning Director Burgdorff: "Aachen can play in the Bundesliga!"
The municipal councillor for urban development, construction and mobility, Frauke Burgdorff, adds: "I am extremely pleased that Aachen, if it sticks together, can also play in the Bundesliga! Aachen's politicians have united behind the project and have given their backing to the state and federal governments. Thank you for that! But I would also like to express my sincere thanks to those who have done the substantive work here on site, to the municipal project manager Nils Jansen as well as to Christoph Guth and Antje Eickhoff, who have done an excellent job on the part of the municipal development company SEGA."
Making town at the Büchel
A special piece of the city at eye level is to be created at Büchel. It is being developed together with many committed people and institutions. With this approach, it has also precisely met the requirements of the call for proposals. The Federal Ministry's project overview states: "Knowledge, living, meadow" are the keywords under which a mixed-use, urban quarter is to be created in the heart of Aachen's old town in a cooperative and exemplary development process that is wanted and supported by the urban community.
The basis for the development is the exploratory procedure "Stadt machen am Büchel" (Making a city at Büchel), which the city of Aachen launched in spring 2020. City Planning Director Burgdorff sums up: "A multi-storey car park has been blocking the development of the old town for decades. We are tearing it down and building a new urban quarter. The urban community itself is developing the programme, urban design and investment strategy. This project offers a unique opportunity to find answers to the question of how a major wound in the old city can be healed with contemporary building-cultural responses."
The next steps
Following today's basic commitment by the federal government to fund the project, the detailed applications for funding will be drawn up in phase 2. In this ongoing process - and on the basis of upcoming landmark decisions of Aachen's municipal politics - it will now be worked out how the Büchel of the future will take shape with the funding millions.
National urban development projects
National urban development projects are nationally and internationally visible, larger-scale urban development projects with clear impulses for the respective municipality or city, the region and urban development policy in Germany as a whole. They are characterised by a special quality standard with regard to the urban development approach, the building culture aspects and the participation processes, contribute to the realisation of the federal government's building policy objectives and have innovation potential. National urban development projects are projects that generally solve tasks and problems of considerable financial dimension. The focus is on the major challenges currently facing cities and municipalities in Germany (e.g. preservation of existing buildings, conversions, sustainable neighbourhood development).
A total of 24 projects for forward-looking urban development are being funded by the federal government with a total of around 75 million euros. 98 cities and municipalities from all over Germany applied for the funding.
More info Interesting facts about the Büchel can be found on the Internet at www.buechel-aachen.de
From Aprill 2021 the Demolition work on the Büchel multi-storey car park. All the info on this has been presented as part of an online event. The stream is still available on the YouTube channel of the city of Aachen: https://youtu.be/KQqFq6v_edA.
Within the framework of a cooperative planning workshop, three teams of experts developed three exciting designs for the Büchel, each with a focus on the major themes of "knowledge, living, meadow". The final presentation of the planning workshop, which took place digitally in January 2021, is also still available as a stream: https://youtu.be/AWSb5Gx3gKA.
Broad alliance of civil society, science, business and practice demands,
take the entire life cycle of construction into account
In addition to energy consumption in the use phase, the climate impact must be
of building materials and the construction and disposal of buildings
be considered
National climate targets can only be achieved if all savings potentials of the
construction sector can be used
A broad alliance of actors from civil society, science, industry and practice is calling on the German government to promote the climate-friendly construction, maintenance and demolition of buildings. Up to now, only the use phase of buildings has been taken into account in state subsidies for buildings and in the Building Energy Act. There is a complete lack of specifications and consideration of the climate impact of building materials and the construction and disposal of buildings - despite the fact that the construction sector, with its upstream and downstream processes, contributes around 8 percent to German greenhouse gas emissions.
More than 60 supporters have already signed the appeal "Focusing on the entire building life cycle - a key issue for climate protection", which was published today. With the appeal, the Alliance calls for requirements to be placed on the entire life cycle of the building in federal funding for efficient buildings and in the Building Energy Act.
Dr. Ulrich Wischnath, executive director of Bauwende explains, "The importance of upstream and downstream processes in construction is significant. Today, a typical new building has already caused half of its energy consumption and CO2 emissions before it is first used. We can only reduce this environmental impact if the legal requirements for buildings also apply to the construction and building materials.“
Barbara MetzDeputy Federal Executive Director of Deutsche Umwelthilfe adds: "For effective climate protection, we must consider the entire life cycle of buildings. There is great potential for reducing climate gases from construction and building materials - but this is in danger of being wasted due to a lack of specifications. That's why state funding for renovation and construction must also be linked to criteria that guarantee sustainable building all round."
"The faster the framework conditions are set, the faster the implementation will start and the more houses will be built with the improved climate standard. This is not only good for the climate. Sustainable construction methods and materials also conserve resources and reduce further environmental impacts of the construction sector," notes Danny Püschel, energy policy and climate protection officer at NABU.
The signatories of the appeal point out that after more than 30 years of research and more than a decade of practical testing, there are established procedures for an assessment oriented to the life cycle of buildings. The Federal Government must make sustainable building more widespread by launching the "Federal Promotion for Efficient Buildings" at the beginning of the year. The Building Energy Act must also be revised so that it formulates requirements for buildings that relate to their environmental impact over their entire life cycle. Only in this way can the enormous potential for savings in construction and disposal be tackled in a targeted manner.
The Signatories of the call represent a broad spectrum: from building material manufacturers to energy consultant associations and other building professionals to large environmental associations and the Architects for Future.
The appeal is open for signature until the end of January. Afterwards, it will be presented at a public event and discussed with political representatives. If you would like to sign the appeal, please contact wischnath@bauwende.de
Contact
Dr. Ulrich Wischnath, Managing Director, Bauwende
0176 64059904, wischnath@bauwende.de
Constantin Zerger, Head of Energy and Climate Protection, Deutsche Umwelthilfe
0160 433 40 14, zerger@duh.de
Danny Püschel, Energy Policy and Climate Protection Officer
03028 49 84-15 21, Danny.Pueschel@NABU.DE
Download
The Joint Call "Focusing on the whole life cycle of construction - a key issue for climate protection".
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Düsseldorf. 4.25 terawatts (TWh)! This is how much electricity was produced last year (2017) by the photovoltaic systems installed in North Rhine-Westphalia. This corresponds to the average annual electricity demand of more than 1 million four-person households. In total, there are 8.7 million households in NRW.
The study "Greenhouse gas balancing of timber buildings -implementation of new requirements for life cycle assessments and determination of empirical substitution factors (GHG timber construction)" led by 
