Mark Summerfield - Burnley College
After an early breakfast we visited our host company BCS and were warmly welcomed by Herr Gerlach, Director of BCS, who also has a renewables design and installation company.
BCS is a not for profit organisation which has been providing vocational training since 1956. Originally the company specialised in Electrotechnical training and had as many as 3,000 electrotechnical trainees in the Sudthuringen region and a further 15,000 in the GDR overall. Since reunification the company now covers a wider variety of vocational training including metal engineering, plastics engineering, administration, hospitality and electrotechnical. Trainees generally do a 3-4 year apprenticeship, which is generally considered to be 50% vocational technical and 50% vocational practical. BCS focuses on the practical training and new entrants often do 1 year off the job with them before going to an employer.
Recent demographic changes in the region, including a migration of young people to western parts of Germany, the company have diversified and now offer commercial courses in areas such as Renewables, CAD, CNC, hydraulics and pneumatics as upskill courses for mature learners. They also have a reputation as a specialist provider of training for students with support needs, particularly in the hospitality sector. Students come from a variety of regions, and can stay in the accommodation owned by the company.
Herr Gerlach emphasised the importance of employer and business relationships, his active membership of local forums, chamber of commerce and community groups helps him better keep in touch with employers and understand their training and business needs. He was a founder member of the Association of Energy Users.
In Germany 20% of energy is generated by renewable sources, Energie Wende is the term used to describe the turnaround of thinking in energy generation towards renewable technologies, this is leading to a more decentralised supply system in parts of Germany.
The importance of energy efficiency was emphasised, particularly as energy prices are on the increase, as is the case in the UK. Surprisingly, some PV companies are currently struggling since the market is getting close to saturation for PV. Electricity prices are traded on the German Energy Market, and prices can fluctuate on a daily basis, e.g. if it is sunny, the price will drop.
An interesting point on subsidy was raised by the group – discussion took place on subsidies for renewables technologies, but it was pointed out that nuclear and fossil fuel options also receive subsidies and have done so for many years.
SOLAK
The next stop was the mobile renewables bus which visits schools and vocational academies to introduce the concepts behind renewable technologies using hands-on experiments to engage and enthuse students using kits which each have a workbook and components allowing experiments to be carried out. The experiments cover PV, heatpumps, solar thermal, wind energy, and CHP. The bus had 7 stations for students working in pairs, and caters for 3 groups of up to 14 students per day and charges 520 Euros per day.
The bus provides excellent facilities in an interesting and active way. It was funded by the job centre with work on the bus being carried out by unemployed workers on the 1 euro per hour scheme. The bus is now self funding and travels throughout the Sudthuringen region.
The bus was parked at the BCS Vocational training centre which is equipped with two PV arrays generating a total of 38kW peak. This provides around a third of the electricity consumption for the centre. The maintenance regime consists of an annual clean and monitoring of output.
Viernau Solar Park
After lunch we went to Viernau passing through the forest regions; the sight of three wild deer running through a clearing at the edge of the forest was a reminder that the region is famous for its wildlife and also for hunting. At Viernau we met the Mayor, Herr Hellmann, who gave us an introduction to the Solar Park community project, which is the first solar community scheme in the former East Germany. He also gave an overview of renewables provision in the province.
We then visited a pico hydro installation in the town, where the owner Herr Munt, demonstrated the water turbine which was installed by his great grandfather in 1933. Although it has been recently been renovated, the Francis Turbine is the original turbine fitted back in 1933. The generator has a maximum capacity of 11kW and was producing 1kW on the day we visited even though the flow was very much reduced. His informative discussion was partly drowned out by the Christmas geese who took offence at our visit.
A short journey later we arrived at the solar farm; a community generation project, which produces up to 990kW using 3960 Sharp 250W PV modules connected in strings through dc junction boxes to a large enclosure which contained the inverters. The land for the solar farm was a former landfill site which has been rented from the local council for a period of 30 years. The project took just 12 months from conception, through design, planning and development to the completed project we visited.
The project cost 1.4 million euro. The finance for this was provided by a bank loan and a community partnership arrangement which raised 400,000 euro. The partnership has 43 members including businesses and the local council. Minimum investment was 500 euro and maximum was 30,000 euro. Each shareholder has 1 vote in the partnership no matter what the size of their investment is. The remaining 1 million euro was provided by a low interest (2.95%) loan from a local bank and will be repaid within 13 years. Investors will receive a 6-8% return on their investment over the 20 year period that the feed in tariffs are guaranteed for.
This community scheme is very similar to the set up by Will and Damien of the Brighton energy Co-operative, structure, contribution levels, voting rights, income and loan percentage are all comparable albeit on a smaller scale for the Brighton community project. Having such a wide variety of backgrounds and interest in the group has been very useful and interesting as it gives an alternative perspective to the issues surrounding the implementation and development of renewable and energy efficiency resources.
As we returned from the solar park we detoured to view a smaller scale installation which had been installed on some agricultural building roofs, the arrived back at the Town Hall where the group were able to ask further questions about funding the project and the structure and arrangements of the community partnership, which Herr Hellman explained very clearly, clarifying any issues which arose. Dirk was an excellent interpreter and he explained the sometimes complex relationships of the various bodies which went to making the project such a success.
On our return to the accommodation the group agreed it had been a very useful day with everyone benefiting from some aspect of the day’s activities. After a light meal we then adjourned once again to the local bar to avail ourselves of the wi-fi facilities and send our first report to the blog.
Rowan Langley - Funky Renewables
Introduction to our host institution, BCS and a more formal introductory session for our backgrounds and areas of expertise. Our host institution was established in 1955 when this part of Germany was the DDR, and undertook the practical technical training for many of the large state concerns of the DDR. The institution gives training for a number of “Vocations”, electrical and electronic, Construction, office administration, and hospitality.
Over the last two decades a shift in thinking has been taking place in Germany over energy, a movement our host described by the term “Energiewende – Energy Change” There has been a move away from the model of energy production in a small number of large scale centralised plants. The model is much more decentralised, possibly in future one might see a whole village or borough deciding to go off-grid. Renewable energy facilitates such a move. The events of 11th September in the USA indicated to many thinkers that centralised energy generation creates a vulnerability – damage to only a small number of installations can create widespread effects. The recent nuclear accidents at Fukashima in Japan have moved opinion firmly against nuclear generation. The problem of waste is not solved, one delegate described the UK approach as like “Hotel “ charges, to store the waste products where they could at least be retrieved in emergency.
Against this must be noted the significant size of the four major energy companies in the nation (a number of these concerns also own generation in the UK). It has been claimed that the large scale penetration of Renewables into the German energy grid is forcing up prices by around 7%. The reverse is actually the case as far as wholesale prices are concerned. The spot price on the Leipzig energy market (the electricity trading mechanism in the German energy market) now can be used to track the sun – on days or hours where sunlight levels are high there is a corresponding drop in the wholesale electricity price.
Renewable content of the German grid since 2012 has been reported at up to 20%.
The second event of the morning was SolarAkadamie bus, a mobile educational facility dedicated to low impact and renewable technologies. The bus, donated by the local brewery, was re-fitted by the German Job centres under the 1 Euro job scheme to form a mobile classroom and teaching laboratory. While the school curriculum covers the core disciplines of physics etc, there is no specific focus on renewables, and the bus is able to fill that gap. It has proved far more useful for schools to pay the EUR500 day rate for the bus to visit, during which time three groups can use it, than to buy the various experiment and demonstration kits used in the bus for the school.
The kits themselves are comprehensive demonstrations of the various technologies; solar thermal, solar voltaic, one kit allowing a PV, wind and water demonstration system to be demonstrated, a heat pump, Stirling engine and a reversible fuel cell.
The training centre has two PV arrays on its roof, one at 10 KW and one just shy of 30 KW. Our last seminar of the morning was an overview of the systems combined with a review of the German Feed in tariff system over the last 5 years.
Both Germany and the UK have seen significant reductions in the financial incentives payable, the UK more so than Germany. The German system is more comprehensive in types of installations. The German model has different categories ranging from fitted on buildings or noise screening walls, free standing systems, and also different rates depending on whether the system exports or is used by the site to meet a proportion of its energy needs. The more the site can meet its own needs the greater the amount paid for each unit consumed.
In recent years Free standing systems on Agricultural land lost eligibility for feed in tariff. This has been a deliberate policy to safeguard agricultural land – the overall desire is to be self reliant in both food and energy.
Germany has a greater range of banks compared to the UK, and some banks with a special environmental focus. One example cited was the KFW group. In the UK, the Green – Deal about to be introduced also attempts to make loan finance available, with re-payment met by the financial savings brought about by whatever project is funded. One very successful German project was
one where all old buildings in the former east Berlin were brought to current standards for insulation and energy efficiency during a two year period.
Following lunch we visited the next town, or “Kommune” as such an area is known, as guests of the Mayor to visit a 960 KW community owned PV system before a presentation and question and answer session. The system itself had been constructed on a former landfill site, and operated by a organisation constituted as a Genossenshaft. This seems similar to a Co-operative in the UK. Members invested between EUR500 and EUR30,000. 64 members had invested, together with a loan for EUR 1,000,000 from the local bank which also took a stake of EUR30,000. Each share has one vote, rather than voting being proportional to the financial stake. The council itself is not involved, there being a conflict of interest in that the views of the majority (conservative) councillors holding different views on the desirability of such measures. The council retains a stake as the landowner of the site, and receives a rent of EUR2000 over the 30 year term of the lease.
During the visit we learned of the position of Hydro power in Germany. Rivers now enjoy very strict environmental protection legislation. The result is that while a former mill or disused hydro installation can be brought back into use, it is not permitted to construct a new small scale hydro in a water course.
The system is expected to return around EUR150,000 to the Kommune over the 20 year term through local taxes and rent for the site. Following this it is anticipated that it may be able to benefit the community by being able to offer electricity at a lower price than the market price from the usual energy suppliers.
Claire Chapman - Scottish Water
This morning, we headed out to the BCS (Buldung Center, SudThuringen), which is the Renewable Training Centre. It existing pre-unification, with around 3 500 students, studying electrical-technical work. Nowadays, there is a lot less demand, with demographics having shifted heavily (the youth appear to have moved West in search of the high life) and it now focusses on engineering in metal, plastic and electro-technical.
I hadn’t realised how much international events would influence local issues; the Fukushima disaster in Japan has had a massive impact on German energy production. Nuclear is no longer being progressed, and as a result there is a big gap for renewables, which already have a 20 % share of the Energy pie here. The college stressed that Energy production is only one side of the story, with energy saving the other key element that government policies are looking to drive home.
In this heavily wooded, hilly area, there are no wind farms, and solar and CHP / biogas are the main areas of Renewables.
We visited a Renewable Training bus, that was beautifully refitted, to go around schools, training children on various alternative energy sources (see the pics below. The experiments are really clever, and I had fun playing with a mini-heat pump.
The bus was originally funded by the job-centre, and now runs as a private enterprise, to plug a gap in the school education curriculum.
After lunch, we visited an old mill, with the original Francis turbine from 1930, still operating beautifully. The only improvement made since then, was the addition of a generator in 1994, so the mill now operates off electricity, as opposed to being connected directly.
And finally we saw a very neat piece of roofing work, an integrated roof system, where the entire side of a roof had been replaced with solar hot water systems. It looked very smart.
I was then lured into the local shop this evening, to come out loaded down with Stollen, which weigh a ton, and I’m not sure how I will get them home through easyjet!
Damien Tow - Brighton Energy Co-op
An early (for me) start to the day and after breakfast a warm welcome at BCS from Herr Gerlach and his team. It was very interesting to hear the history of the FiTs and the state of the renewable sector in Germany and appreciate that in many ways the argument has largely been won on renewables here, although the Conservative Government are now significantly cutting solar PV FiTs. What is still open to debate and being lobbied against in the UK is much more mainstream in Germany ie. global warming, peak oil, the 'unsustainability' of nuclear, endless economic growth being impossible in a resource constrained world.
Seeing the Solar Bus which acts as a mobile education centre touring the region was very useful too and generated lots of ideas of how we could do similar marketing and communications in the UK. This is particularly necessary when the general public perceives solar to no longer be cost effective.
The mayor of Viernau was very open and frank about the costs and finances of the project and their organisational structure, which was very welcome and useful to hear! Already ideas about bringing a delegation of community energy professionals over from the UK for knowledge sharing are being developed….
Dirk Bischof - Embrace Cooperation
The day started after a good rest in the BCS Guesthouse (http://www.bcs-gaestehaus.de). We started the day with an introduction to BCS and the management. This was done by Mr Gerlach, BCS director and solar pioneer in this region of South Thuringia.
We then started our first day by some facts and figures for Germany & the local region. Germany aims for a share of renewables of around 35% by 2020 and 50% by 2030 and a reduction in CO2 by 40% and 55% respectively.
Development of energy costs for a 3-person household:
green: petrol; orange: heating oil; blue electricity; violet: renewables (EEE)
Household electricity price (2012)
New vocabulary/ concepts for the day:
“Biergenossenschaft” – a temporary collective of people writing their Blog in the pub
Websites:
http://www.dgs.de - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sonnenenergie e.V (German Association for Sunenergy e.V)
http://www.ises.org/index.html - Association of cooperatives
Owen Humphries - WYG Group
Well fancy this happening in England – following a meeting at the local town hall in some sleepy mountain top village in central Germany, 65 locals agree to set up a registered company complete with Board of Directors; commit €400k of personnel finance into a project pot, then use this to raise a further €1M from the bank, and then proceed to convert the local closed landfill site into a 1.0 MWe solar farm – dealing with planning, EIA, environmental permitting, technical, legal and financial affairs, and just about whatever other EU Directives stood in their way, along their path – and getting the scheme successfully accredited and energised all within one year!
As “Wolfie” from BBC’s Citizen Smith used to shout from his Tooting South London tower block – “Power to the people!!”
This achievement clearly demonstrates the old adage that where’s there a Will, there’s a Way! The German’s used to consider themselves to be the dogmatic nation of old Europe…forever wrapping itself up in bureaucracy, and always aspiring to be pragmatists like us Brits…20 years on in new Europe, these labels have certainly be switched…and perhaps for on the basis of sound reasoning!
