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Market incentive programme for solar thermal energy

Published

According to the DGS (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sonnenenergie e.V. - German Solar Energy Society), the general conditions for solar thermal systems are more attractive than ever before, which is related to the market incentive programme (MAP) for solar thermal subsidies that was overhauled last year. After years of dwindling sales, the latest collector sales statistics from the German Solar Industry Association (BSW) and the German Heating Industry Association (BDH) show around 7 percent growth from November 2015 to March 2016. Certainly, the level is no longer very high due to the lean years, but there is once again an application backlog at BAFA for a long time. In addition to the financial incentives, the many programme components of the MAP are particularly interesting. Thanks to innovation funding, additional funding for process heat and solar houses, it has become much more attractive.

According to Ministerial Councillor Dr. Frank Heidrich in his introductory lecture at the 26th DGS Thermal Solar Energy Symposium in April 2016, the programme is being promoted by the BMWi in a "communication activation campaign". The DGS considers a merger with the Renewable Energies Heat Act in the course of the EnEV amendment to be a more suitable funding approach for solar thermal energy.

In the study "What does the energy turnaround cost?" by Fraunhofer ISEwhich deals with the ways to transform the German energy system by 2050, Prof. Dr Hans-Martin Henning concludes that economically good solutions are only possible with solar thermal energy.


Keywords: DE-News, Funding, Climate protection, Solar thermal

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BMU/UBA Federal Award ENVIRONMENT & BUILDING 2021

The Federal Award ENVIRONMENT & BUILDING initiated by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) under the patronage of Federal Minister Svenja Schulze honors projects that already realize the idea of a new Bauhaus in the sense of holistically sustainable buildings. In 2021, the prize will be awarded for the second time, this time in four categories. All players in the building sector are eligible to apply. The closing date for entries is 25 May 2021.. The prize will be awarded on 7 September by Parliamentary State Secretary Florian Pronold and UBA President Dirk Messner.

The discussion about the climate, environmental and health impacts of buildings and their construction has long since reached the centre of society. Topics such as primary energy demand, grey energy or healthy building are no longer just the preserve of experts, but are also attracting the attention of more and more private and public building owners. And rightly so - because the building sector consumes enormous raw material and energy resources, and building products can be harmful to the environment and health. Sustainable solutions already exist today and are already being implemented. The Federal ENVIRONMENT & BUILDING Award therefore honours lighthouse projects in the field of sustainable building and helps to bring the EU Commission's vision of a "New European Bauhaus" to life.

About the Federal Award

This year, the Federal Award will again be presented in the categories "Residential Buildings", "Non-residential Buildings" and "Neighbourhoods". A fourth category, "Climate-friendly refurbishment", is new. In addition to these competition categories, the jury may award special prizes for particularly innovative approaches among the projects submitted.

Conditions of participation

Due to the thematic breadth, all actors in the building sector are invited to apply: from builders and developers to offices for architecture, building services engineering, urban or landscape planning to manufacturers or research institutions. The call for entries is aimed at buildings that have already been completed in Germany or neighbourhoods that are at an advanced stage of planning; multiple applications in different categories are possible (also applies to refurbishment projects!).

What awaits the winners

The award winners will receive public attention on several levels. The award ceremony will take place on 7 September 2021 at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in Berlin, where the award-winning projects will be presented to experts and the media. The award-winning projects will also be featured on the websites of UBA and the Federal Environment Ministry. UBA is having films made on the award-winning sustainability examples, which the winners can then use for their own public relations work. Furthermore, all award-winning projects will be documented in a book.

Further
For more information on the conditions of participation in the Federal Environment & Building Award and last year's winners, please visit the Federal Award website: www.umweltbundesamt.de/bundespreis-umwelt-bauen.

Application deadline: 25 May 2021

Source: BMU



Keywords:
Contests & Prizes

Published

NRW launches new sustainability strategy

North Rhine-Westphalia is the world's largest public issuer of sustainability bonds / Minister President Laschet: North Rhine-Westphalia is committed to a future in which ecology and economy are responsibly compatible


The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia has adopted an updated sustainability strategy that has been supplemented with important topics for the future. With a wide range of goals and measures, the strategy shows the way to sustainable living and economic activity in the most populous federal state. The strategy was developed in cooperation with all ministries of the state government under the leadership of the Ministry of the Environment. The state government will appoint a sustainability advisory board to accompany the implementation, evaluation and further development of the sustainability strategy.

Minister President Armin Laschet: "With the newly presented sustainability strategy based on the 17 UN goals, North Rhine-Westphalia is making concrete contributions to the integrity of creation and to sustainable economic activity. North Rhine-Westphalia is a pioneering state: we show how sustainability can succeed here in a highly developed and densely populated industrial state in the heart of Europe. In this way, we can set an example worldwide. North Rhine-Westphalia is committed to a future in which ecology and economy are responsibly compatible."

"By positioning ourselves sustainably as a society and economy, we are shaping the future and future markets. Each and every individual can make a contribution to this in this decade of sustainability," says Environment Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser: "At the same time, the new strategy is also a central guard rail for the way out of the corona pandemic. This must be linked to tangible steps towards sustainability so that the economy can not only recover, but North Rhine-Westphalia can emerge from the crisis more climate-friendly, resource-efficient and sustainable."

The core of the new sustainability strategy is a set of 67 concrete goals and indicators. These are closely interlinked with the goals at federal level and are based on the global sustainability goals adopted by the United Nations on 25 September 2015 with the worldwide Agenda 2030. Ecology, economy and social coexistence are given equal consideration.

World's largest public issuer of sustainability bonds

Among other things, North Rhine-Westphalia plays a pioneering role in the issuance of sustainability bonds. In recent years, North Rhine-Westphalia has placed six sustainability bonds with a total volume of almost eleven billion euros on the financial markets. This makes North Rhine-Westphalia the largest public issuer of sustainability bonds worldwide and the first and so far only German state to issue bonds in this area. The multiple awards with industry prizes confirm the success of the state's sustainability bonds.

"The sustainability principle is particularly important to us - economically and politically," affirms Lutz Lienenkämper, Minister of Finance. "We achieve high demand on the market and at the same time enable important investments for the future of our country."

Wide range of targets and indicators

The spectrum of goals and indicators ranges from an increase in organic farming to 20 percent of agricultural land, to strengthening the environmental economy as an important future segment, to a minimum investment of 3.5 percent of GDP in innovations and solutions for the future. Other indicators describe the expansion of all-day care at primary school age and the increase in raw material productivity by 2030. In addition, the strategy includes important future topics such as digitalisation, the circular economy and electromobility.

Further information on the sustainability bonds

With the sustainability bond, the country is addressing investors who value a financial investment that supports social and ecological concepts. The investors' money flows into sustainable projects of the state from a total of seven project categories. These include, for example, exemption from contributions for the last year of kindergarten and the expansion of cycle paths and broadband infrastructure. The pension fund of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is also managed 100 percent sustainably. The state pursues the goals of security, profitability and sustainability in its investment decisions.

The requirements for sustainable capital investments include both general ESG criteria (Environment, Social, Governance - ESG) and targeted criteria for the exclusion of ethically or ecologically particularly problematic business practices. This is how sustainable management with improved environmental standards succeeds in the industrial and energy state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The state invests exclusively in companies that are among the best rated in the areas of ecology, social affairs and corporate governance on the basis of numerous key figures. In particular, international norms and standards for the protection of the environment as well as ethical and social criteria formulated by the UN apply.

Further information



Keywords:
News Blog NRW, SDG 2030, Environmental policy

Designing outdoor lighting efficiently - reducing light pollution
Published

Designing outdoor lighting efficiently - reducing light pollution

The illumination of night landscapes by artificial lighting increases globally by about 2 to 6 percent per year, with effects on people and nature. A new guide describes how municipalities can minimize light pollution by making their street and building lighting more efficient. Researchers from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and the University of Münster have now jointly published the guide on redesigning and retrofitting outdoor lighting.


About 30 percent of vertebrates and even more than 60 percent of invertebrates are nocturnal and can be affected by artificial light at night. The protection of the night must therefore be understood more strongly than before as a fundamental task of nature and landscape conservation, says Prof. Dr. Beate Jessel, President of BfN. The guide to action now published shows that it is possible to minimise the ecological damage caused by artificial lighting. It contains numerous concrete recommendations for action and practical tips for outdoor lighting.

Good lighting is efficient and reduces power consumption while increasing visibility and safety. It is aesthetically pleasing and minimises environmental impact. Many of the measures presented in the action guide are also simple and inexpensive to implement, is how IGB researcher and study leader Dr. Franz Hölker sums up the requirements. Franz Hölker's team is a leader in Germany and internationally in research into so-called light pollution. This is the term used when artificial light at night has a negative impact on humans and light-sensitive creatures. The guide is largely based on scientific findings that his working group, together with researchers from the BfN and the University of Münster, have gained over many years of work.

In the absence of explicit regulations for outdoor lighting, industrial standards for lighting are often treated in practice as legal provisions. In many cases, even the minimum requirements of the technical standards are far exceeded in order to exclude possible claims for damages, for example in the event of traffic accidents, and to prevent accusations that the street lighting does not comply with the state of the art. The result is that outdoor areas are often illuminated much more than necessary, with possible negative consequences for people and nature. However, it is possible to minimise the ecological impact of artificial lighting and at the same time meet social requirements such as safety and aesthetics.

The first author, Dr. Sibylle Schroer from the IGB, gives examples of solutions: Municipalities should use luminaires that do not emit light upwards. The illuminance should be as low as possible and cold white light with a high blue light content should be avoided. This is because the circadian system of higher vertebrates and humans is particularly sensitive to blue light. The use of warm white light can mitigate the negative effects on many organisms and is often perceived as more pleasant by humans.

The interdisciplinary collaboration with the lawyer for environmental and planning law, Benedikt Huggins from the University of Münster, uncovered gaps in environmental law in order to better protect organisms from exposure to poorly installed, unnecessary or excessively bright artificial light in the future. The recommendations were made on the basis of the two research and development projects Analysis of the effects of artificial light on biodiversity, Determination of indicators of impairment and derivation of recommendations for action to avoid negative effects in the context of interventions and Light and glass: Legal issues of the endangerment of species by light and glass, funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment and accompanied in terms of content by the BfN.

The restriction of light pollution brings further advantages, for example in terms of energy savings and thus climate protection, as well as for human health. The guide offers those responsible in local authorities as well as those responsible for lighting, urban and regional planning a free professional decision-making aid to actively promote the conscious use of artificial light.

More information here

Source: Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, press release, 20.01.2020



Keywords:
Greening / climate adaptation, DE-News, Artificial light, Media, Near-natural open space design, New books and studies, Permaculture, Transition Town, Wildlife/animal friendly construction, Ecology

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