In three different pilot areas – a commercial area, a mixed-use area and a residential area – local businesses and residents are to cooperate both in the production and storage of solar energy (pooling for self-consumption) and in the use of electric vehicles (sharing, “Mobility as a Service”). This addresses two problems that are emerging in Switzerland and in Winterthur in the context of the Energy Strategy 2050: on the one hand, the sluggish expansion of solar energy and, on the other hand, the high density of fossil-fuelled motorised private transport.
The project is based on the cooperation of various partners from Winterthur from the fields of higher education/education, industry, structural and civil engineering and city administration. In particular, the areas are confronted with the issue of combining self-use and shared mobility. While the installation of a PV system including ZEV will soon be a matter of course in new buildings, e-vehicle sharing is still not very widespread here either. ZEV^2, on the other hand, starts with existing buildings and aims to design the optimal solution for mixed areas by combining technologies (metering infrastructure, energy management system, charging infrastructure – and the digital networking of these three systems) and needs (use, billing, transparency).
The project is being carried out by the City of Winterthur under the project management of the Climate Unit. The project is also financially supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy with the Front Runner programme.
Further information is available on request from the Smart City programme management.
Tag: Akzeptanz
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Self-consumption community in the double sense
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Early participation can increase acceptance of wind power
An early participation of the population can increase the acceptance of new wind turbines in the vicinity of residential areas. According to a press release , researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research ( WSL ) have come to this conclusion. They interviewed 500 people in areas close to the city of Bern about the plans to erect wind turbines. It has been shown that the rejection has a lot to do with the personal connection to the place and the landscape.
Actually, everyone agrees: Renewable energies are valuable and necessary, says Matthias Buchecker from the Social Science Landscape Research Group at WSL, describing the initial situation. However, when it comes to specific investments, it often becomes difficult. So far, it has been assumed that the change in the face of a landscape caused by large wind turbines causes a knee-jerk rejection in one’s own neighborhood, Buchecker is quoted as saying. But this explanation falls short. Instead, the reasons for the rejection lie in the local ties of those affected. “People want to have a say in decisions sooner.”
This requires a rethinking of the planning processes. Because in the survey, the opponents rejected a change in their residential area as a whole – not just the specific wind farm. Involving the population must begin with the question: How should one’s own region develop in principle – ecologically, in terms of energy, economically and in terms of landscape? Buchecker is quoted as saying that the aim should be to find a broad and overarching consensus within the framework of which renewable energy systems would also find their place.