Council of Ministers approves bill to amend state building code
In its meeting on 26 May 2020, the Rhineland-Palatinate Council of Ministers approved in principle a draft bill to amend, among other things, the Rhineland-Palatinate Building Code. The amendment of the state building code is intended to implement changes to the so-called model building code that have already been adopted or are in preparation.
The amendments to the State Building Code relate in particular to facilitations for building with wood, which the construction ministers of the federal states agreed on at the last Construction Ministers' Conference, according to the official Press release. "I very much welcome the expansion of the possible applications for wood as a material. Wood is a particularly sustainable, environmentally friendly building material that plays an important role in achieving national and international climate protection goals. Moreover, wood is extremely versatile. Components can be produced for all areas of application, and there are particular advantages, for example, for serial construction as well as for conversion and extension measures. Last but not least, wood often enables cost-effective construction and promotes regional forestry, especially in Rhineland-Palatinate. In Rhineland-Palatinate there are many successful, exemplary projects in timber construction," explained Construction Minister Doris Ahnen.
With the amendment of the State Building Code, the use of timber components in taller buildings (especially multi-storey residential buildings) is now to be made possible under certain conditions. Accordingly, wood can be used as a building material for buildings up to a height of 22 metres; previously the limit was 13 metres.
The draft law now goes into the participation and consultation procedure.
Source: PM from Holzbau Deutschland dated 27.5.2020
A bill on the State Reception Act will be submitted to the Landtag today. With this, the municipalities will receive more money for the reception, accommodation and care of asylum seekers. "The amendment to the State Reception Act will lead to a significant improvement in the financing of the task of assisting refugees for the municipalities and is an important basis for ensuring that the municipalities and the state continue to fulfil their tasks," said Minister President Malu Dreyer and Integration Minister Irene Alt.
Early yesterday evening, the municipal umbrella organisations and the Rhineland-Palatinate government jointly agreed on the cost reimbursement to be paid for refugee assistance expenses as of 1 January 2016. The starting point was the federal funds available to Rhineland-Palatinate according to the decision of the Federal Chancellor and the heads of government of the Länder on 24 September 2015. "We have worked out the necessary key points together so that they can now be introduced as a bill in the state parliament," said Finance Minister Doris Ahnen, who led the discussion together with State Secretary in the Ministry of Integration Margit Gottstein and State Secretary of Finance Salvatore Barbaro.
"I very much welcome the cornerstones that have been worked out jointly between the municipal umbrella organisations and the state government. They ensure that the state and the municipalities will continue to tackle the great challenge of taking in refugees together," said the Minister President.
Starting in 2016, the municipalities are to be paid a lump sum of 848 euros per month per refugee. This refers to the period from distribution to a local authority until the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees issues the first decision in the asylum procedure. This lump sum is paid out in full by the state exactly according to the number of refugees and the months. In this way, the municipalities are relieved effectively and quickly - regardless of how and when the federal government settles the relief for the Länder.
In addition, starting in 2016, the state will make a lump sum payment of 35 million euros at the beginning of each year for costs that are still incurred after the initial decision has been issued. For 2015, it is planned that Rhineland-Palatinate's share of the federal government's additional refugee billion of 48 million euros for the current year will be made available in full to the municipalities. Of this, 24 million euros will be provided as a lump-sum cost-share. The remaining 24 million euros of the refugee billion and another 20 million euros of Land money form an advance payment totalling 44 million euros on Land benefits due in 2016. The aim is to provide the municipalities with the necessary funds in a timely manner.
There is now also clarity for the distribution of federal funds to be used for child day care in the Länder after the abolition of the childcare allowance. Rhineland-Palatinate will receive a total of about 95 million euros from 2016 to 2018. These funds are to be divided equally between the municipalities and the state. To ensure that support is as even as possible, the municipalities will receive three equal annual instalments of around 16 million euros each (a total of around 48 million euros). These funds can be used flexibly within the framework of local target agreements to improve child day care and for additional expenditure in this area.
In the context of the Green Deal, the EU's tightened targets on the path to climate neutrality envisage a reduction in CO2 emissions of 55% by 2030 and 100% by 2050. Against the background of these tightened parameters, the question arises as to the impact on the energy transition in Germany. Based on its energy system model REMod, Fraunhofer ISE has calculated the consequences of the new EU targets for the expansion of renewable energies in Germany and now presents the results in a short study.
In February 2020, Fraunhofer ISE presented the study "Pathways to a Climate-Neutral Energy System - The Energy Transition in the Context of Societal Behaviour", which investigated the influence of societal behaviour on possible transformation paths of the German energy system towards an almost complete reduction of energy-related CO2-emissions in the year 2050. The calculations carried out with the REMod energy system model were based on the targets set by the German government at the time of preparation, i.e. a reduction in German CO2-emissions by 55% in 2030 and 95% in 2050 compared to 1990.
In response to the tightening of the European targets from 40% to 55% by 2030, which has now been implemented as part of the European Green Deal, the Institute has recalculated. The transformation paths for Germany considered in the February study were revised with a view to reducing Germany's CO2-emissions of 65% in 2030 and complete climate neutrality of the energy system in 2050. The scientists from Freiburg recalculated all scenarios of their study from February (reference, insistence on conventional technologies, unacceptance of large infrastructure measures, sufficiency). As an additional aspect, they added an investigation of the sensitivity for import prices of green hydrogen and synthetic fuels. The short study mainly considers the reference scenario in order to be able to go into more detail on the changes caused by the target tightening. However, the study also identifies corridors for the expansion of a variety of technologies that can be derived from different scenarios. In the case of photovoltaics and wind, annual additions of 10-14 GW and 9 GW respectively are required by 2030 in order to achieve sufficient CO2-free electricity for Germany.
"The update of our energy end-use study shows that achieving the climate protection targets, even with a greater reduction in greenhouse gas emissions than previously assumed, is feasible from a technical and systemic point of view, albeit with greater efforts," says Dr Christoph Kost, head of the Energy Systems and Energy Economics Group and author of the short study. "A target tightening of energy-related CO2-emissions leads to a higher direct or indirect use of renewably generated electricity in the consumption sectors. This in turn requires a much greater expansion of wind and solar power generation facilities." Furthermore, the short study shows that the expansion of fluctuating renewable energies requires a strong expansion of system flexibility.
If we want to achieve a reduction in CO2emissions by 65% by 2030, battery-electric vehicles must account for 30-35% of passenger transport in the mobility sector, for example. In a climate-neutral energy system by 2050, conventional internal combustion engines will be virtually eliminated from passenger car transport as well as from freight transport.
"Heat pumps - used in households or to supply district heating networks - must become a key technology for heat supply with immediate effect," says Institute Director Prof. Dr. Hans-Martin Henning, summarising the results for the building sector. With a view to the CO2-avoidance costs, he adds: "The tightening of the target used here leads to an increase in CO2-avoidance costs. However, these depend to a large extent on the development of final energy demand."
Link to the study "Pathways to a climate-neutral energy system - The energy transition in the context of societal behaviour", February 2020, update December 2020:
Since August 2016, fuel cell heating systems have been subsidised with an attractive grant of at least EUR 5,700 via the KfW programme "Energy-efficient construction and refurbishment - fuel cell grant". With a fuel cell heating system, electricity and heat can be generated simultaneously according to the principle of combined heat and power.
Grant of up to 40 % of the eligible costs, max. 28,200 euros per installed fuel cell
for the installation of fuel cell systems in new or existing residential buildings
Energiedienst receives production approval for hydrogen from green electricity
Domestic industry will be the first customer
Energiedienst's power-to-gas plant in Grenzach-Wyhlen is allowed to produce emission-free hydrogen from green electricity as of today. Photo: energiedienst.de
Grenzach-Wyhlen, December 5, 2019. Hydrogen production in Grenzach-Wyhlen in Baden-Württemberg (not far from Basel) can start. Energiedienst today received approval for the operation of the power-to-gas plant. All technical verifications and official clarifications have now been fulfilled.
In the state-of-the-art plant, Energiedienst produces hydrogen from self-generated green electricity using electrolysis. The electricity comes from the company's own hydroelectric power plant on the same site. The environmentally friendly hydrogen will initially be used in nearby industry. It is also planned to use it in local public transport. A comprehensive concept also envisages that the waste heat generated during electrolysis will be used to heat a new residential area. By linking electricity, mobility and heat supply in this way - keyword: sector coupling - the plant should help to reduce CO2 emissions and support the energy transition.
A year ago, Energiedienst officially inaugurated the power-to-gas plant together with the State Minister of Economics, Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut (CDU).
The plant has an output of one megawatt. In addition, there is 0.3 megawatts from an affiliated research facility of the ZSW (Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research). The state of Baden-Württemberg has funded this as part of a lighthouse project.
At the end of October, Energiedienst also submitted a concept for hydrogen for consideration in the "Reallabore der Energiewende" ideas competition run by the German Federal Ministry of Economics. The Federal Government attaches a key role to hydrogen, especially for the mobility of the future. The funding commitment from Berlin is still pending.
Company information
The Energiedienst Group is a German-Swiss public limited company with a regional and ecological focus. It generates green electricity from hydropower and sells electricity and gas. Its own grid companies supply customers with electricity. Another focus is on intelligently networked products and services for the decentralised renewable and digital energy world of the future, such as photovoltaic systems, heat pumps, electricity storage systems and e-car sharing.
The Energiedienst Group supplies over 270,000 customers with electricity. It employs just under 1,000 people, including around 50 trainees. The group includes Energiedienst Holding AG, Energiedienst AG, ED Netze GmbH, Messerschmid Energiesysteme GmbH, EnAlpin AG in Valais as well as Tritec AG and winsun AG. Energiedienst Holding AG is an associated company of EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (Karlsruhe).
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