The first meeting of REPLACE’s Oberland Local Working Group took place on 25th February – a date with the descriptive name “sooty Friday” which is a traditional chimney sweepers’ day in the region. At the meeting in Penzberg, knowledge and networks were brought together to bundle forces for a heating system change in the region. Representatives from energy consultancies, chimney sweepers, the Chamber of Crafts for Munich and Oberbayern, and the Consumer Advice Center Bavaria were present.
To demonstrate the project’s relevance for the region at the meeting, a look at emissions and energy consumption in the Oberland showed that heating produces 31% of CO2 emissions and is responsible for 44% of the overall energy consumption (figures taken from the research project INOLA). At the same time, only 10% comes from renewable energy sources whereas 66% stem from natural gas and 21% from oil. A success factor for replacement actions in the Oberland, besides changing towards renewable energies, is the focus on renovation: INOLA figures have shown that an increase from currently 0,7% renovation rate to 1,4% particularly for buildings with high energy consumption can lower energy consumption significantly. And in addition, another INOLA finding showed that heating demand can fully be covered by regional renewable energy sources, mainly from free standing solar thermal systems followed by solar thermal roof-top systems, biomass and geothermal energy.
When deciding on the REPLACE campaigns that are particularly interesting for the Oberland, the Local Working Group’s most favoured included excursions to best practice examples in the region, followed by facilitating collective actions like district heating systems or purchasing-pools, and supporting replacement services by mobile heating containers. Other important topics at the meeting were e.g. the reliability of political framework conditions for long-term planning, the importance of district heating for the Oberland, and an outlook on the planned energy summit.
In autumn 2020 the next meeting of the Local Working Group is scheduled, whose expert knowledge profoundly supports the development, steering and realisation of regionally adapted replace actions.