Energy consumption of the district: massive growth spoils the ecological balance

A real paradox emerges in the energy report for the district's buildings.

Although the energy consumption drops significantly, the energy consumption actually hardly drops.

Why is that?

District

- It's one of those things with statistics: You can always interpret them one way or another. So one can say that the energy consumption for the properties in the district fell significantly in the past year. This is an effect of numerous large and small energy-saving renovation measures, including the corona pandemic, including lockdowns, home office and homeschooling.

From a purely objective point of view, heat consumption in 2020 fell by just five percent compared to the so-called “base year”.

The "base year" is a statistical trick to achieve better comparability.

Every year is different.

Sometimes it's freezing cold for months in winter, sometimes it's always spring-like.

That is why the years 2008 to 2011 were taken and an average was formed from the consumption at that time - the so-called "base year".

Compared to this “base year”, the district's heat consumption has dropped by just five percent.

Much more land to be cultivated than a few years ago

That doesn't sound particularly intoxicating at first.

Florian Steinbach, the head of the building and property management of the district, however, pointed out in this context that the cultivated areas have increased significantly compared to the base year.

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A very current, concrete example: In Weilheim, the new, energetically ultra-modern vocational school has just been moved into.

This resulted in several thousand square meters of used space in the district's properties, because the previous vocational school is still used by the FOS / BOS.

Lots of additional technology is driving up electricity consumption

So if the total consumption nevertheless decreases with strongly increasing areas, "then the consumption drops very significantly if you calculate it down to the square meter of usable area", says Steinbach.

The situation is similar when it comes to power consumption.

Overall, it only drops by four percent compared to the base year, "but if you take into account that there are PCs, whiteboards, projectors and air purifiers in every classroom today, the savings are already massive," says District Administrator Andrea Jochner-Weiß in the district committee where the energy report was presented.

So despite all the detailed savings, you pay the ecological (and economic) price for the growth course of recent years.

Only water consumption has really decreased significantly compared to the base year - by around 35 percent.

This can also be explained by the fact that the schools and offices were hardly used for months due to the lockdown and therefore the toilet flush was used significantly less often.

CO2 emissions are reduced by switching to green electricity

The massive investments made in recent years have not made themselves felt financially, however: the district paid 1.4 million euros in 2020 for the energy and water bills of its buildings - almost exactly the same amount as in the base year.

Meanwhile, the CO2 emissions associated with the electricity and heat consumption of the district's own properties have fallen noticeably - by 39 percent compared to the base year.

However, this is mainly due to the fact that the district is now relying on green electricity.

While 4053 tonnes of CO2 were blown into the atmosphere for lighting and heating in the base year, it was only 2455 tonnes last year.

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If, however, one now proceeds from the consumption per square meter of used space instead of the total consumption, the savings are even greater.

In the base year, 35 kilograms of CO2 were produced per square meter, in 2020 it was only 16 kilograms - a saving of 54 percent.

Big savings are only possible through new construction or general renovations

Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go before we can achieve climate neutrality.

And that will be, as District Treasurer Norbert Merk made clear, a complex and expensive one.

“In the past few years we have made a big leap in terms of renovation and new construction.

This was due to the good financial resources of the district through the district levy, but also to extensive subsidies from the Free State. "

In the future, too, the main focus will be on general renovations, said Merk.

"Otherwise we will fail financially." The selective measures proposed by District Councilor Karl-Heinz Grehl (Greens / Weilheim) are not advisable, "as we usually do not get any funding here".

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The task is immense - also because the differences between the individual communities are great.

In Penzberg, almost all properties in the district are already supplied with heat from regenerative sources, in Schongau you benefit from the district heating supply from UPM.

In Weilheim, on the other hand, almost all buildings in the district (except for the new vocational school, which has a wood chip system) are supplied with natural gas.

"We are waiting for the municipal utilities to build the new multi-storey car park with heating plant so that we can join in," said Florian Steinbach in the committee.

As a general rule, in the future, new buildings and general renovations should primarily focus on the use of local heating networks, heat pumps, biomass heating or at least the use of bio natural gas or synthetic gas.

It also became clear where, for energetic reasons, there would be an acute need for action.

If only then, the vocational school in Schongau and the sports center and agricultural school in Weilheim would be the most important candidates for a general renovation.