Category: Power supply

Renewable Energy for Local Economic Development in Africa

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The main objective of the workshop is to develop renewable energy projects in African cities.

The workshop was attended by 30 practitioners* from city governments, associations and the private sector representing 7 countries and 20 cities from Africa, as well as high-level guests including the Country Director of GIZ, the Kenyan Ministry of Energy, the head of the Romanian Development Agency (RoAid), the City of Gersthofen from Germany, and officials from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). Representatives from various cities in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Tunisia also contributed to the success of the conference with their presentations of the framework conditions and project examples.

Connective Cities with side event @COP27

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Join us on November 12th, 6:30 – 8:00 pm UTC+2, virtually or at the German Pavilion at COP27 – and discuss challenges and solutions to energy supply and energy efficiency in cities.

Cities worldwide face dependence on energy imports and energy supply as well as high prices and price fluctuation due to wars, conflicts, and insecure situations worldwide. The expansion of renewable energies and energy efficiency in urban development are therefore currently gaining further momentum.

How can cities work towards energy autarky? What role can cities play in eliminating energy imports? To what extent can cities and municipalities produce their own energy?

The side-event is organized by Connective Cities and the German Association of Cities (Deutscher Städtetag) and addresses challenges and good practices examples in the fields of:

  • Energy supply and energy consumption of different sectors in cities
  • Good Practices in reducing energy consumption (e.g., nearly zero energy buildings; renewable energy; clean energy)

Keynote: Mrs. Lea Ranalder, UN-Habitat

Panel discussion:      

  • Mr. Andreas Wolter, Mayor, City of Cologne, Germany
  • Mrs. Melanie Grabowy, Mayor, City of Bonn, Germany
  • Mr. Houcine Jrad, Mayor, Municipality Houmt Souk, Tunisia
  • Dr. Georges Youssef, Municipality Menjez, Lebanon
  • Mme Gladys Wanga, Governor County Government of Homa Bay, Kenia

Moderation: Sabine Drees, German Association of Cities

Virtual participation is possible via:  Side Event | Responding Russia´s war: Towards Energy Autarky on a local level (german-climate-pavilion.de)

Sustainable Urban Energy Planning in Southeast Europe (SEE)

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Video about Connective Cities’ learning process II conducted in May 2021 – June 2022 to support municipalities in fine-tuning their project ideas in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable energy and developing them further towards bankable project proposals.

Watch video at YouTube:

https://youtu.be/TET3myNbj2I

More information on the dialogue event in November 2021:

Development of bankable project proposals for sustainable urban energy planning in Southeast Europe

TUMI Transport Outlook 1.5˚C

Posted on by erik

The Paris Climate Agreement as adopted in December 2015 set out to reduce global greenhouse emissions at a rate that would limit global temperature increase this century to a level 2.0˚C above pre-industrial levels. It went even further, laying out steps that might be taken to pursue an increase limited to 1.5˚C.

for exactly how we can achieve the goal of limiting greenhouse emissions. The transport sector accounts for nearly one-quarter of global energy-related carbon emissions. Climate action in transport is urgently needed because energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are the main driver of climate change (Teske et. al 2019). Yet a clear-cut path to transformation, one which is backed up with ‘hard’ numbers for policymakers around the world, remains missing. To close this gap, TUMI and the University of Technology Sydney developed a robust scenario study.

This study considers the conditions necessary to achieve these goals under three scenarios: A reference baseline study, in which no changes are implemented in terms of transport, along with a look at those changes that need to take place in order to limit warming to 1.5˚C or 2.0˚C.

For an executive summary and animated charts visit:

https://outlook.transformative-mobility.org/

TUMI Transport Outlook 1.5˚C

Posted on by erik

The Paris Climate Agreement as adopted in December 2015 set out to reduce global greenhouse emissions at a rate that would limit global temperature increase this century to a level 2.0˚C above pre-industrial levels. It went even further, laying out steps that might be taken to pursue an increase limited to 1.5˚C.

for exactly how we can achieve the goal of limiting greenhouse emissions. The transport sector accounts for nearly one-quarter of global energy-related carbon emissions. Climate action in transport is urgently needed because energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are the main driver of climate change (Teske et. al 2019). Yet a clear-cut path to transformation, one which is backed up with ‘hard’ numbers for policymakers around the world, remains missing. To close this gap, TUMI and the University of Technology Sydney developed a robust scenario study.

This study considers the conditions necessary to achieve these goals under three scenarios: A reference baseline study, in which no changes are implemented in terms of transport, along with a look at those changes that need to take place in order to limit warming to 1.5˚C or 2.0˚C.

For an executive summary and animated charts visit:

https://outlook.transformative-mobility.org/

Qaraoun Future Hope Project

Posted on by erik

Amidst the energy crisis that Lebanon is facing, the municipality of Qaraoun has succeeded in overcoming major impediments to the provision of renewable energy to its residents. The renewable energy project ‘PV SOLAR SYSTEM- OUR FUTURE HOPE’ has addressed local needs for renewable energy, technical and vocational education and training, as well as community awarness raising. The project has adopted an inclusive approach that ensured gender-sensitivity throughout its components.

Municipal energy efficiency projects in MENA

Posted on by erik

By 2030, the population in the MENA-region is expected to increase to 487 million people, 63 per cent of whom will live in cities and their surroundings. The expected population growth will increase the energy demand thus increasing the risk of future energy constraints.

Within the ambit of the learning process on municipal energy efficiency projects in MENA, the virtual dialogue event was held on the 18 – 20 May 2021. The dialogue event aimed at promoting the exchange of expertise on good practices for planning and implementing energy efficiency projects.

The virtual dialogue event was attended by 23 municipalities joining from Algeria, Germany, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia and Turkey. Working in groups, participants exchanged ideas, worked in collaboration, and developed project concepts addressing local needs and opportunities for energy efficiency in their cities. Throughout the dialogue event, participants showed high commitment to the program with a level of excitement that was particularly evident on day 3 of the event dedicated for peer advisory on challenges and developing project ideas.

The virtual dialogue event had the following direct outcomes:

  1.  Formation of a regional Community of Practice (CoP) that included 23 different municipalities from five countries in MENA in addition to Germany.
  2. Establishment of institutional relationships among municipalities with shared vision to achieve energy transformation and efficiency.
  3. Enrichment of the capacity of more than 23 municipal representatives in the field of energy efficiency project development and the showcasing of 21 different good practices from MENA, Germany, Southeast Europe, Southampton and South Africa.
  4. Successfully enabling the peer-to-peer advisory among different municipalities during group activities, in the main sessions, and during offline times.
  5. Development of 7 energy efficiency project ideas that are ready to be expanded into fullscale project proposal.

This report documents in detail the dialogue event.

Kruševac’s Vision – “A city accessible to all”

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The Vision of Kruševac’s SUMP is that the urban environment and traffic should contribute to the city’s development. The aim is to make traffic accessible to all, regardless of age, gender, income, physical or mental ability. The target from the Agenda 2030 is „80:20“, namely that citizens will walk, cycle or use public transport to cover 80% of the trips they need to make.

Sustainable urban energy planning in Southeast Europe (SEE)

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The energy sector influences the vibrancy and sustainability of the entire economy – from job creation to resource efficiency and the environment. Significant shifts in the sector can have a strong ripple effect throughout the economy. Making the energy supply more cost-effective, reliable, secure, and environmentally sustainable thus contributes to the long-term resilience of economic development.

This concept paper describes the current context and importance of sustainable energy in SEE; current trends and scenarios in SEE; how SDG 7 and 13 as well as the Paris agreement affects the energy response in SEE; critical challenges for SEE to be energy responsive; some key steps needed for the future in SEE; energy financing – a key strategy for going forward; and finally the agenda for action for the dialogue event: sustainable urban energy planning in SEE.

Innovative solar energy system in the Navahrudak district hospital

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A combined system of thermal panels (SWH) with heat pumps (HP) and photovoltaic panels (PV) was installed on the site of Navahrudak district hospital. It was the first time that such a combined project using SWH, HP and PV was implemented in Belarus. Now two buildings of the district hospital have independent heating, electricity system and hot water supply.