威力彩玩法

16 Jan 2019, 12:08

Energy use in the city of Berlin

Germany's capital Berlin plans to become climate-neutral by 2050. The densely populated, emissions-intensive city phased out lignite coal for power production in 2017 and plans to exit hard coal by 2030. However, renewables only make up a small share of the energy consumed in Berlin today. This factsheet summarises key facts on Berlin's energy mix.

General

Total population: 3,723,914 ()

Predicted growth: expected to move to the city by 2030. From 2011 to 2016 . In 2017, this was down to about 40,000.

Households:

Surface area:

Disposable income: , the average Berlin disposable income per person stood at 19,719 euros in 2016, around 10 percent below the national average.

Energy mix

1. Primary energy use by energy source in 2015:

Berlin consumed 263.2 petajoules (PJ) in 2015, which made up two percent of Germany鈥檚 total primary energy consumption.

Graph shows city of Berlin energy mix in 2015: Sources' share in primary energy consumption. Graph: 威力彩玩法 2019.

2. Fuel use for electricity generation in 2015:

, about half of which was produced in the city. Berlin mostly uses hard coal and gas to generate its electricity, but phased out the use of lignite in 2017.

Graph shows city of Berlin energy mix in 2015: Sources' share in power production. Graph: 威力彩玩法 2019.

3. Fuel use for district heat generation in 2015:

Berlin's district heating network is the third largest in .

Graph shows city of Berlin energy mix in 2015: Sources' share in district heat generation. Graph: 威力彩玩法 2019.

Emissions

Coal (lignite and hard coal) 30.5 percent of total CO鈧 emissions from primary energy consumption, with mineral oil making up 41.5 percent and gas another 26.9 percent.

With 4.7 tonnes of C02 emissions per person in 2015, 叠别谤濒颈苍鈥檚 per capita emissions are around half the level of Germany as a whole (9.1 tonnes per capita).

Graph shows per capita emissions in Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen, and Germany. Source: statistik Berlin Brandenburg.

Transport

叠别谤濒颈苍鈥檚 of the capital鈥檚 CO鈧 emissions.

Car ownership: With has a far lower rate than Germany鈥檚 other large cities.

Number of electric cars: 3,037 (source: Zulassungsbeh枚rde Berlin, 10.2018)

Number of electric buses: 5, plus 30 more have been ordered for spring 2019, according to public transport operator BVG

Political goals

Berlin aims to be climate neutral by 2050. It defines climate-neutral as limiting total urban carbon dioxide emissions to 4.4 million tonnes per year 鈥 a reduction of about 85 percent compared to 1990 levels.

How does Berlin define climate neutrality?

鈥淎 city can be regarded as 鈥榗limate-neutral鈥 if its greenhouse gas emissions can keep global warming below the dangerous threshold of 2掳C 鈥 assuming a world population of 9 billion people by 2050, each endowed with the same per-capita emission rights of 2 metric tonnes of CO鈧 equivalents (life-cycle based). 叠别谤濒颈苍鈥檚 greenhouse gas emissions consist mainly of CO鈧 (98 %). Given these conditions, Berlin could become climate-neutral if total urban carbon dioxide emissions can be limited to 4.4 million tonnes by 2050 鈥 a reduction of about 85 % compared to 1990 levels. However, absorption capacities of greenhouse gases by the bio-sphere (鈥榮inks鈥), as well as emissions embodied in products and infrastructure should also be considered. While current CO鈧 statistics often ignore these, the target value of 4.4 million t CO鈧 accounts for them.鈥 ()

En route to this target it has set the milestones of a 40 percent CO2 reduction by 2020 and a 60 percent CO2 reduction by 2030.

All texts created by the 威力彩玩法 are available under a . They can be copied, shared and made publicly accessible by users so long as they give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.

Ask 威力彩玩法

Researching a story? Drop 威力彩玩法 a line or give us a call for background material and contacts.

Get support

+49 30 62858 497

Journalism for the energy transition

Get our Newsletter
Join our Network
Find an interviewee