威力彩玩法

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29 May 2017, 00:00
Paul Hockenos

Efficiency gains make eastern German city Energiewende frontrunner

Magdeburg - Photo: Flickr/ Deutsche Euroshop AG
Magdeburg - Photo: Flickr/ Deutsche Euroshop AG
Germany鈥檚 energy transition is a vast national project that is reshaping the entire country. But it is happening on a local level, too. Here, the 威力彩玩法 looks at the path that one eastern German city is taking towards decarbonisation.

The former communist East German city of began its energy transition right after German unification in 1990. By switching from coal heating to gas, and using less energy, the mid-sized city with a population of 236,000 cut emissions by more than .

This dramatic reduction makes the city in the southwest of Berlin a frontrunner in the land of the Energiewende: Germany鈥檚 national targets aim to cut CO鈧 by at least 55 percent by 2030.

Magdeburg's remarkable emission record is only partly due to energy efficiency measures and its selection for two exclusive pilot programmes. The city has also suffered the same fate as much of the former GDR in the years following unification: Industry collapsed, jobs were shed by the thousands, and the population of cities like Magdeburg shrank. Just about the only silver lining to this was a steep reduction of greenhouse gases.

The potential for generating renewable energy in Magdeburg is limited, like in most cities. In addition, Magdeburg is the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt, and both are comparatively under-resourced, meaning very little project funding has been available from their own budgets.

Yet Magdeburg got its energy transition off to a quicker start than most of its eastern peers. In 1993, Greens in the city council spearheaded an initiative to enter Magdeburg into , a network of 1,700 municipalities across Europe working to combat climate change. Among other measures, members such as Magdeburg pass municipal resolutions to cut CO鈧 emissions by 10 percent every five years. Magdeburg went further, pledging to cut its emissions by 50 percent by 2010, . Climate Alliance was also instrumental in acquiring software (through ) to conduct a sophisticated assessment of the city鈥檚 emissions.

Another breakthrough for Magdeburg came in 1998, when wind turbine manufacturer ENERCON set up a production site in the city - a rare bright spot in the bleak transition years. With the introduction of the Renewable Energy Act in 2000 and the upswing in renewable energy development across Germany, ENERCON expanded its Magdeburg operations, making it one of the company鈥檚 biggest facilities worldwide. Its Magdeburg sites employed workers, as of 2015.

Magdeburg declared itself a 鈥渕odel city鈥 for renewables on the back of ENERCON鈥檚 rise and opportunities presented by the Energiewende. Modest, mostly symbolic steps were taken, such as introducing the topic of renewable on to school curricula. But the model city concept was to spark bigger changes.

In 2010, the city mobilized a broad coalition of actors to apply for 鈥 and win 鈥 entry into a new, five-year, five million-euro German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) programme called . The coalition consisted of ENERCON and other private sector firms, NGOs, and , the , municipal utility , (IFF), and (IFAK). Almost every member had a specific project, which were linked in a combined effort to meet the city鈥檚 target of reducing CO鈧 emissions (compared to 1990) by two-thirds by 2020. It comprised a total of 17 measures in the fields of buildings, city planning, electricity use, transport, energy systems, analysis and communication.

The Magdeburg-Stendal Polytechnic, for example, was funded with 1.3 million euros to assess the energy use of all of the city鈥檚 buildings, and their potential for efficiency measures and renewables production. Dozens of faculty researchers, as well as bachelor and master students were involved in the project. The database they created is now a cornerstone of the city鈥檚 Energiewende policies and the starting point for its recent involvement in the environment ministry鈥檚 Master Plan 100% Climate Protection programme, which it was selected for in 2015.

鈥淭he really tremendous thing about the cooperation between the different actors in Energy Efficiency City wasn鈥檛 just how closely we worked together,鈥 says Volker Kr眉ger, of the Magdeburg municipality鈥檚 environment department. 鈥淏ut rather that we continued to cooperate after the project was complete. Usually when the money runs out, these kinds of consortia fall apart - people lose interest. But we decided to push on together, and it has continued to be highly successful.鈥

For example, the Magdeburg consortium worked together to have Magdeburg selected as one of three cities for the German Energy Agency鈥檚 (dena) Energy Efficiency Municipalities programme, funded by the Federal Economics and Energy Ministry. Dena鈥檚 remit was to integrate energy and climate protection management competence into the city administration in order to build the necessary capacity to implement the Energiewende at ever-higher, more sophisticated levels.

Magdeburg is now one of the 19 localities in the second round of the Master Plan 100% programme ( was in the first round). The city will submit its concept for further measures in mobility, lifestyle, energy savings, digitalization and production in 2017. The programme then runs for another three years. The goal of all Master Plan 100% participants is to design a strategy to cut CO鈧 emissions by 2050 by 95 percent - which is a higher-end goal of the federal government鈥檚 target of a countrywide 80 to 95 percent CO鈧 reduction by 2050.

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