Study visit to Germany as part of the project Civil Sosiety Energy 2022
The project was implemented by the German cooperative WECHANGE eG in partnership with the NGO ‘SYNERGY Sustainable Development Agency’, with financial support from the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany
As part of the final phase of the Civil Society Energy 2022 project, the most motivated and active participants in the online course ‘Designing PV Stations Using Professional Software’ had the opportunity to visit Germany and learn about successful case studies involving energy-efficient buildings and renewable energy cooperatives.
The participants held a series of meetings with representatives of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), the Federal Association for Renewable Energy, and the founders of energy, school and building cooperatives in Germany.
The study visit began with the Ukrainian delegation’s participation in the annual civil society conference of the Eastern Partnership countries, ‘Dialogue for Future 2022’, in Berlin (Dialogue for Future 2022: “Building a sustainable civil society and safeguarding democracy in the EU and Eastern Partnership countries”), where one of the main topics of the conference was shaping a vision for the reconstruction and post-war recovery of Ukraine. Key message: Rebuilding, reconstruction and modernisation of Ukraine in line with EU standards! Significant attention was also paid to issues of ‘green’ reconstruction.
Energy-efficient homes
The participants were introduced to the federal Efficiency House Plus with Electromobility project and the Wunschnachbarn WEG cooperative ecosystem (passive houses)
Efficiency House Plus is a research pilot project under the ‘Zukunft Bau’ initiative of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), as well as an information and demonstration facility for Efficiency Houses Plus. The Efficiency House Plus initiative was launched in 2011 with the development of a prototype building. To date, almost 40 jointly funded Efficiency House Plus residential construction projects have proven their practical suitability. The experience and solutions gained during the implementation of these pilot projects are helping to further develop and bring energy-efficient standards in residential construction to market.
Another initiative is a housing cooperative set up by ordinary citizens who have come together around the idea of a community based on good neighbourliness. They are not only residents of a passive house, but also members of a community that shares cars, tools, (cargo) bikes, books, IT infrastructure and more. Here, a great deal of attention is paid to climate-conscious construction: from the production and transport of building materials to energy consumption during the use, refurbishment and deconstruction phases.
Energy cooperatives
During our study visit to Bona, we focused particularly on learning about best practices in energy cooperation based on renewable sources
During a study visit to Bonn and Cologne, participants visited and learned about the structure and operations of a number of energy cooperatives established through civil society initiatives. They vary greatly in structure, business models, and management styles, but the most important component is the social aspect: educating the next generation in school cooperatives, achieving climate and energy independence goals in utility cooperatives, and local development in municipal cooperatives.
Participants had the opportunity to speak with a representative of the German state-owned company NRW.Energy4Climate, which focuses on climate protection and the energy transition in North Rhine-Westphalia. The company promotes the implementation of the energy transition and adherence to climate protection goals, focusing on four key emission sectors: energy, industry, construction, and mobility, which together account for over 90% of greenhouse gas emissions in the region.
The next stop was the Eco-E school cooperative, whose main contributors are students from one of the school’s classes; in addition, the students have been assigned management roles within the cooperative. The cooperative manages a solar farm in a mountainous area. This approach fosters a sense of responsibility and facilitates the transfer of knowledge from the older generation to the younger one.
The founders of the local cooperative BurgerEnergie shared their experience of establishing the cooperative with the participants. The cooperative’s history began with the creation of a local energy cooperative. Meanwhile, the municipalities of Siegburg, Lommar, Hennef, Mülheim, Troisdorf, St. Augustin, Bonn, and Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, supporting the cooperative’s goals, became members. A significant number of municipalities support a regional approach to the implementation of renewable energy sources in the “region for the region.” Today, the cooperative is implementing a wide range of projects: photovoltaic systems, local energy supply systems, BKW, wind turbines, and ESCO contracts for electricity and heat supply.
During their visit to the RothaarWind Planungs wind farm, the participants learned about the challenges of building a wind farm in mountainous and forested terrain. “That's impossible,” you might say, but no—it exists and is planning to expand. The cooperative’s founder takes this approach: “We’re working while politicians are still debating; he’s confident that citizens can independently create energy projects to meet their own needs!”
One of the largest cooperatives visited by the participants was Energiegevinner eG, which has more than 2,500 members and manages over 100 energy cooperation projects. The cooperative’s founder and project financial manager shared various business models they use for different types of energy projects.
Key message: The development of renewable energy cooperation in Ukraine has enormous potential; the main obstacle to accelerating the development of community energy projects is the lack of a clear regulatory framework and advisory and consulting services. Most of the cooperative founders emphasized that when they began establishing their cooperatives, the legislative framework also did not meet their needs; however, year after year, letter after letter, they steadily worked to secure the necessary conditions for the development of their own cooperatives. Their struggle continues to this day. Another distinctive feature of the cooperatives we visited is that profit maximization is not the primary goal of establishing a cooperative; much greater attention is paid here to the green transition and a healthy lifestyle, energy independence, sustainable development, and meeting the needs of the community.
