Tom Broughton - Transition Town Chichester
My illusions of a country that strictly did things by the book were dented somewhat today when I learnt that the requirement for an Energy Pass, equivalent to the UK’s EPC, when selling or letting a property was not strictly adhered to. The cost of an Energy Pass, €50-100, didn’t seem that different to the UK, as long as the property owner had 3 quarters of energy bills, otherwise the price could double. Even the potential fine of €50,000 didn’t seem to encourage stronger adherence. As highlighted by Energy Assessor Dipl. Physiker Reiner Maschke, the number of energy assessments was much less than the number of sales/lets. Herr Maschke hoped than a central register for the Energy Passes which should have been live in 2012 would be ready in 2015! Surprisingly, this does seem to be something that the UK has done better than Germany as there has been a central database, administered by a Quango, Landmark, since the start of EPCs.
At the Pumped Storage system at Goldisthal, we learnt that the system could generate 1GW of electrical power in 90 seconds! And could change from pumping to generating in 2 minutes. It could even pump and generate at the same time – this latter scenario was motivated by contracts on the electricity market that could actually have electricity generators selling electricity at negative prices, due to imbalances created by the country’s significant renewable energy sources of 7GW Wind and 18GW PV. It was wondered whether a PV system could be used to also pump the water and have a truly integrated system on site. However, it was noted that a 1GW PV system would occupy the same entire area as the model.
Chris Rowland - OVESCO
Retrofitting of homes in Germany is funded by KWF bank at a 1% interest rate. There is also a grant of for up to 10% of the cost, which can be taken as an alternative. This is more attractive that the Green Deal in the UK, which has an interest rate of about 7%. You wonder why one of our state owned banks in the UK cannot offer a lower interest rate, when Germany offers such an attractive deal? Home energy assessments are similar to those in the UK but use a sliding scale instead of steps to indicate a buildings performance.
When we visited the back pumping station at Goldistha and the high speed rail link from Hamburg to Nurnberg, I was struck by the long term planning required to make these projects happen and scale of these projects. Both projects are located in the Thuringian Forest, which is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. I had a mixture of emotions about the high speed rail link standing in front of the bridges and tunnels cutting through the forest (see photo). On the one had I saw a fantastic construction project, which promoted the use of train travel, on the other hand you cannot ignore the fact that this is a huge scar in the landscape. Perhaps it will be easier to except once the project is completed in 2017 and all the landscaping is in place. Dirk explained that the link will be primary used for freight transport and aims to take lorries off the autobahn reducing and this will carbon emissions.
It seemed easier to justify the back pumping station, because most of the hardware is hidden in the turbine hall about 1KM under the mountain (see photo). This project almost was almost small in comparison to the rail link and it also helps to balance the grid in Germany, which is important with so much for PV and wind generation now on line. This is basically a huge battery you can switch on an off any time you like. If you want renewable energy at scale you need storage and a way to manage that storage.
So where does that leave us? Small is beautiful, but can big be beautiful or have we just lost the ability to think on a human scale when it comes to national decisions about infra structure? Germany has it all from home retrofits and solar systems houses to huge filed scale PV, back pumping stations and high speed rail networks. They are working at every level in this country to simply keep up with our changing world and they are deploying all of this at scale right now.
25 April 2013: Community smart grids, CHP, solar and electric cars, could this be the future for Transition Towns and are we already on this path
Lee Rose - Norfolk Solar
Mr Maschke (an energy assessor) gave a presentation about performance of buildings; he clearly knows a lot about his subject but i personally found this session less useful than the others so far. Then it was off to Goldisthal pump station, a water driven electric turbine complex above the forest. Aside from stunning scenery, the tour of the complex was great. The guide was really helpful and knowledgeable, and we got up close to some impressive equipment, all buried deep in a mountain.......it felt like the lair of a james bond villian. Just around the corner, we got a tour of the new section of Deutsche Bahn network from Berlin to Munich; again impressive feats of engineering.......huge bridges and long tunnels. i look forward to travelling on the finished article in 2017!
Jake Rendle-Worthington - Solar Aid
This morning we started with a presentation from an energy assessor or auditor. He ran through the German system of energy performance certificates for building, what they consist of and how to perform them as an overview. He highlighted the main areas to look at for energy loss in homes and thus where improvements can be made in efficiency. He also showed where the main areas of energy usage are, mainly heating. Once efficiency and energy use measures have been exhausted he thought that the next push would be for home energy storage.
We were then taken to a massive pumped storage facility owned by Vattenfall. This consisted of a man-made lake in hills that was at about 800m above sea level feeding turbines about 300-400 metres lower that flushed out into a basin that had once been a valley, but now was damned. The Turbine hall was deep underground and contained 4 x 265MW turbines, giving a total capacity of 1.06 GW! Each turbine was reversible, thus turning it into a pump to push water from the lower reservoir up to the top. This could be done at times when there was excess generating capacity on the grid causing negative electricity prices.
There are even occurrences when two turbines could be pumping and two turbines could be generating because of house the electricity market is distorted. Most impressive was the size of the actual turbines, over 4m in diameter. When fitted in place they are surrounded by a coiled penstock in which are a number of fins that can regulate the pressure of the water as the total fall decreases due to the water level in the top reservoir falling.
After this tour we were given a talk and tour of the new high speed train line be constructed between Nuremburg and Berlin. In order for this line to allow freight trains to maintain speeds of over 200kmh the angle of slope could not be more than 12m in 1000m, and as the route goes through the mountains of Thuringa 28 arch bridges and 40km of tunnels had to be built. There were numerous other challenges faced by this new high speed line, but works, as we saw are progressing rapidly and it is expected to open on time in 2017 and on budget at 10 Billion Euro. After a highly interesting day of information overload we came back to the Guest House at the BCS for a BBQ and a Volley ball tournament. Not quite managing to hold the British end up in the latter.
John Shaw - Burnley College
After breakfast ... We walked up the hill to BCS headquarters and had a presentation from Herr
Maschke...an independent e energy assessor, he gave an overview of the Domestic Energy Assessor process here in Germany. In Thuringia, on average 87% of energy used in the home is for space heating...and for a typical house with no insulation measures ...this equates to 220 parts of 275 parts for the whole house needs…
Maschke...an independent e energy assessor, he gave an overview of the Domestic Energy Assessor process here in Germany. In Thuringia, on average 87% of energy used in the home is for space heating...and for a typical house with no insulation measures ...this equates to 220 parts of 275 parts for the whole house needs…
The biggest factors to heat loss and energy used being
- External envelope/shell ...a factor being East Germany's change from wood and coal since the reunification of 1990/91 and the change to oil and gas...most internal heating systems are 22 years old!!
- Energy demands are increasing and it's difficult to predict as climate changes are uncertain when factoring into energy requirements
- Quality of current building insulation standards
- Perversely ...people who live in poorly insulated homes tend to use less energy...as they are aware of the building's performance and so tend to wear more clothes in winter!!!
Herr Maschke went on to describe more factors and then presented a live as element on the utilising where we are staying...the Gastehaus at BCS including the typical assume not of a German one of 172 m2. The BCS building could be significantly improved from 131 KWH per metre 2 per year to 106 KWH per year per metre 2...with a five year payback (this is based on a 1% bank loan as the measure sod not cost over 75,000 Euros to fund). We took our pack lunches and drove to the Goldistahl pump storage facility about an hours car journey away...
The visit started in the visitors centre and we then went underground via bus...a system of tunnels and steps took us to view the main turbine hall and gallery, Thomas Schubert, a member of the facilities team, explained the actual process of moving water from the top lake....which "drops" 25 metered over 8 hours continuos running...via four pipes which start at 6metre diameter and reduce to 2.5 metres at turbine point...a pressure of 32 bar!!! Several working models explain the process and I took many pictures for the team back in Burnley...sharing my experience will be important for the College.
Following another mini-bus ride to the surface, We left Thomas and drove to our next visit ...the new planned High Speed rail link from Munich to Berlin. Due to Thuringia's mountains and forests... The rail track is a series of tunnels and bridges spanning the valleys and hills... For an Engineer or keen bridge enthusiast like me...it was fantastic and I enjoyed taking many pictures of beautiful curved arch bridges and tunnels.... Our guide was the local engineer who has been a part of this project since conception in the early 1990's.
After his presentation in the Goldistahl visitor centre, we again got in our vehicles for a tour of the construction site, the road being especially built for the project. I took advantage of this by taking as many pictures as possible, trying to apply the camera tips I have learned from Jorin, a Dutch member of our group. I'm looking forward to seeing them on the big screen back in college.
We returned to our base at BCS and following a BBQ, had agame or two of volleyball...I did join in but it is several years (25 or more!) since I've played and it took a while for me to get into the play of things...luckily: Dirk, Louie, Andrea and Jorin didn't seem to mind...as we had good fun with beating ...only just...the local kids ...They were very good and to be honest I think they let us win!!
David Aspin - Burnley College
Today we visited the BCS training facility where we attended a presentation by a Physics Engineer and an Independent Energy Assessor. The presentation explained the principles of the assessment and the elements of the Assessment which are:
- Year of construction
- External construction
- Location of the property
- Geographical exposure
- Primary and secondary heating system
- Domestic hot water system
- Number of occupants
- Use of property
- Existing insulation levels
- Heating controls
- DHW controls
The presentation also explained the change of legislative requirements imposed by the government throughout the years and the introduction of the Assessment system in 2007.
The scale of charges for the assessment was also covered i.e. a domestic property with three energy consumption bills would pay in the region of between 50 – 80 euros, for a domestic property 5 units 300 – 400 and an industrial unit 3000 – 4000 euros
It was also explained that owners must provide an EPC when requested or face a fine of up to 50000 euros.
The session concluded with an example of an assessment on a typical 1930´ s property
In the afternoon, the group visited a pump storage facility Goldisthal which was completed in 2003 despite interrupted funding. We had the opportunity to visit the underground complex and view the working models in the display room above where the turbines are located.
The final session of the afternoon included a visit to the new high speed railway site which is its construction phase. This is located at Goldisthal. We visited several locations where construction of tunnels and bridges were taking place. We also attended a presentation in the visitor centre.
