3:40 min, 24.02.2013 With aerial photos of the solar city. Well to see are the collector fields
Project Info: http://sdg21.eu/db/solarstadt-wiggenhausen
Freiburg: the Berndt Koberstein Prize for Living Together and Solidarity in Freiburg, endowed with 10.000.-€, was awarded for the fifth time in Freiburg's "Weinschlösschen". The Tenement House Syndicate, which began in the early 1980s as a small cooperative on the Grether site, has developed into an association of 111 house projects with more than 2,000 residents in various cities and rural areas. In the individual houses people can live cheaply and independently, their organisation in the syndicate prevents the properties from ever being sold. They are thus withdrawn from the market and from profit-making.
With its decision, the jury of the Berndt Koberstein Award acknowledges the continuous great contribution of the Rental Houses Syndicate to the permanent preservation of affordable rental housing. "At a time when housing shortages and galloping rent increases are increasingly impairing the basic right to housing, the work of the Tenement House Syndicate is more valuable than ever," said the jury. The fact that the concept of the Tenement Houses Syndicate places a large part of the responsibility and decision-making authority in the hands of house communities receives special praise. "This creates responsible and solidary living together", says jury member Bernd Obrecht.
More information and a video of the award ceremony (May 2016):
www.berndt-koberstein-preis.de/...Preisverleihung-2016.html
Link to the award winner:
www.syndikat.org/de
Keywords:
Stakeholders, Awards, Cohousing, Sustainable management, News Blog Baden-Württemberg, Housing policy, Housing projects
The Rhineland-Palatinate Timber Construction Award 2018 was presented on 12 June at the Centre for Building Culture in Mainz. There were four equal prizes as well as four recognitions. In addition, an honorable mention was given. Function, (construction) technology, aesthetics and climate protection were the selection criteria for the Rhineland-Palatinate Timber Construction Prize, now awarded for the eighth time:
Pdf-Download (at the information service wood):
https://informationsdienst-holz.de/fileadmin/Publikationen/5_Holzbaupreise_Wettbewerbe/Holzbaupreise_der_Laender/Holzbaupreis_Rheinland-Pfalz_2018.pdf
Keywords:
Awards, Wood construction, News Blog RLP, Contests & Prizes, Ecology
Recently, the Austrian state of Vorarlberg published the subsidy guidelines for 2020 and 2021 for residential renovation and new construction in the private and public sectors. The climate-friendly procurement of wood and wood products from the region is anchored in these guidelines. The origin of the wood must be proven by means of the "Holz von Hier" label recently introduced in Austria or comparable certificates.
Financial advantage for building owners through regional wood
If regional wood is used, the costs eligible for housing subsidies increase by 20 euros per square metre of roof and façade area, for example. For an average-sized single-family house, this can add up to around 4,000 to 5,000 euros. In the case of new buildings, the recognised costs for a loan under the housing subsidy also increase by 20 euros per square metre of floor space for the use of regional wood for the windows, and by as much as 30 euros for the façade.
"With this innovation, we have placed climate-friendly procurement in the foreground, without the risk of legal discrimination against companies in border regions," says Provincial Councillor Christian Gantner, emphasising the priorities. Unlike other quality labels, "Holz von Hier" is not oriented towards state or national borders, but only takes into account transport distances along the entire processing chain. Cross-border cooperation in the wood processing chain is thus strengthened. "In the long term, thanks to "Holz von Hier", regional, rural businesses can be strengthened and imports from more distant countries such as Russia and Scandinavia can be replaced," adds DI Andreas Amann, Head of the Forestry Department of the Provincial Government.
Trend reversal towards more regionality and climate protection in timber construction
The inclusion of the "Holz von Hier" label can stimulate demand among end customers for domestic timber. In public tenders, the proof of origin is already required in accordance with the law, since it has found its way into the specifications for the municipal building certificate. In order to use the label, the entire processing chain must be traceable - all companies from the sawmill to the dealer to the window manufacturer must join the initiative if they want to offer domestic wood with chain-of-custody certification.
"We think that with the inclusion of 'Holz von Hier' in the housing guidelines, a trend reversal towards more regionality and climate protection in construction can be initiated," hopes Erich Reiner, contact person for Holz von Hier in Austria. This could succeed even better if the regionality of the entire building construction is taken into account in future revisions of the subsidy guidelines. The climate-friendly use of wood is in line with the forestry strategy of the state of Vorarlberg and supports the efforts to achieve the energy autonomy goals.
Link
www.holz-von-hier.eu
Keywords:
Building materials / Construction, Procurement, Funding, Wood construction, Climate protection, NaWaRohs, Sustainable management, News Blog Europe (without DE), News Blog Austria, Resource efficiency, Vorarlberg
At a hydroelectric power plant operated by the energy company Energiedienst in Grenzach-Wylen, the production of green hydrogen has been running successfully for four months. The project produces 500 kilograms of hydrogen per day.
Hydrogen from hydropower: successful start for one of the largest power-to-gas plants in Germany to date. This is reported by the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW). The megawatt plant has been in operation for four months in April 2020 and is functioning reliably. A research electrolyser connected to it is also running successfully. The ZSW is coordinating the project. The operator of the commercial plant is the energy supplier Energiedienst AG.
The power-to-gas plant with an electrical connected load of one megawatt produces renewable hydrogen using electricity from the Rhine hydroelectric power plant in Wyhlen. Since it is not necessary to use the public electricity grid, grid fees and the EEG surcharge do not apply. In addition, high full load hours can be achieved because the hydropower is available practically around the clock. This further improves the economic efficiency and enables extensive operating experience to be gained quickly.
He said the plant has been running regularly since early December 2019 and has had 1,850 hours of operation since then. Previously, it was in trial operation. The monitoring system set up by the ZSW, which measures all essential components and subsystems, functions perfectly. The plant operates fully automatically in 24-hour operation both at full load and in various partial load conditions.
The ZSW monitors operation with the help of remote data transmission to Stuttgart and automated data evaluation. The overall efficiency of electricity to high-purity hydrogen compressed to 300 bar is currently up to 66 percent in relation to the calorific value of the gas. In addition, the researchers are investigating ageing effects and deriving potential improvements from the data.
So far, the plant has filled 62 trailers with hydrogen suitable for fuel cells. Each of these transportable containers holds around 300 kilograms. The plant can produce up to 500 kilograms of hydrogen per day. This is enough for an average daily mileage of more than 1,000 fuel cell cars.
The research project docked to the commercial plant is also progressing positively. In a research plant, the scientists are testing improved electrolysis blocks with a maximum output of 300 kilowatts in parallel operation with the commercial plant. They should further reduce the price of hydrogen. But companies could also test and optimize components there.
Last year, the ZSW and its research partners already achieved an initial success during the test operation of the plant: with new electrode coatings, the researchers achieved 20 percent more power density compared to the electrolysis blocks of the industrial plant section. This means that less volume and material are required for the same output.
Since the investment costs are also based on the construction volume and the electrolysis units account for the largest share of costs in the conversion of renewable electricity at around 40 percent, progress in this area is automatically reflected in the price of hydrogen. For manufacturers of electrolysis plants, development is therefore an important factor for further cost reduction. The long-term goal of the ZSW researchers and Energiedienst engineers is to roughly halve the current production costs of electricity-based hydrogen.
The state of Baden-Württemberg supports the Lighthouse project with a total of 4.5 million euros. In 2019, a project based on this was selected by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology as one of the winners of the first round of the "Reallabore der Energiewende" ideas competition. A total of twelve partners are on board for this major project.
14.4.2020 | Source: ZSW
See also:
http://sdg21.eu/blog/gruener-wasserstoff-aus-wyhlen-behoerden-geben-gruenes-licht
Keywords:
Energy storage, Research, News Blog Baden-Württemberg, Power-to-Gas, Hydrogen
