Climate protection is on everyone's mind and one of the most important, if not the most important issue of our time. A central lever is the turnaround in energy policy and thus also the turnaround in heating. With the new climate protection law of the state of Baden-Württemberg, large district towns and cities are now obliged to carry out municipal heat planning. But what exactly does this mean? And how can Geospin support this?
The Climate Protection Act BW forms the legal framework for the climate protection policy of the state and obliges municipalities to achieve the respective climate protection targets by 2030 and 2050. The overarching goal is to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. One concrete measure, for example, is municipal heat planning with the goal of a climate-neutral heat supply. The obligation to install photovoltaic systems on newly built or renovated buildings is another measure.
The central strategic process of municipal heat planning follows the motto "energy turnaround through heat turnaround". This lends itself to the need to create structures for the surplus of renewable energies. It must be possible to store and distribute these in a sensible way, and this is where the heat turnaround comes into play. The heat turnaround must take place at the local level. Local governments' experience with infrastructure planning benefits them. It improves the planning and feasibility of the heat turnaround. The burden should be shared, each municipality takes care of what it can solve best.
The main problems of the heat turnaround are found mainly in the limited transportability of heat. Heat supply must therefore take place at the local level and is carried out by a large number of small suppliers who develop at different speeds, for example in terms of modernization. Municipal heat planning as a key strategy has as its objective area-specific planning to achieve a climate-neutral building stock. It should bring together all stakeholders, be they from urban planning, climate protection, energy supply or municipal utilities.
Heat planning should be part of all municipal planning processes. It should be considered in new construction as well as in existing and redevelopment areas. If, for example, the street is torn up to lay fiber optics, the heat aspect should be kept in mind. In addition, bad investments, which could prove to be unproductive in the future, should be avoided.
Heat planning should be open to technology and adapted to local opportunities and challenges. The development of a heat plan is methodically standardized and requires a very precise analysis of the local conditions.
- An inventory analysis is necessary: How high is the consumption of all buildings? How and are they supplied? Which new construction areas are in the planning stage?
- In addition, there is potential analysis: Where can which renewable energies or waste heat be used? Which areas are needed?
- The target scenario 2050 with the intermediate step 2030 should show where neighborhoods with heating networks are located and what the design must look like to supply the remaining neighborhoods.
Thus, a location-specific action plan is necessary for the heat turnaround strategy.
All these requirements represent major challenges that municipalities must address in the long term. The detailed analyses are cross-zoning and require time and financial resources. The municipal decision-making level, specialist departments and municipal utilities must also come together with planning offices and regional energy agencies.
Using location intelligence to achieve a climate-neutral municipality: How Geospin can help
Geospin's interactive location intelligence platform accompanies municipalities from the initial data collection, the inventory and potential analysis, the creation of target scenarios to the monitoring of measures. Previously manual tasks are automated by using software and artificial intelligence, thus accelerating the creation of a municipal heat plan. A central requirement of municipal heat plans is the location of data on maps. A major advantage of the interactive map in the Geospin portal is that it enables the creation of municipal heat plans even for employees without GIS expertise.
For the necessary analyses, municipalities can link internal data with additional information. For inventory analysis, municipalities must first look at building statistics. They can draw on a wide range of existing data in the Geospin Portal, such as data on building type, year of construction and the living space of properties. The combination of consumption data with environmental data makes it possible to analyze local conditions in detail. This enables them to visualize infrastructure in need of renovation, which gives municipalities a major advantage in the necessary inventory analysis. They can thus easily identify potentials in heat planning and derive targeted measures. By regularly updating the data, one can also keep track of their measures and how effective said measures are.
With our portal, you save time when creating the municipal heating plan. In addition, you receive fast and reliable data on heat requirements and potential savings. With the Geospin Portal, every special feature of the municipality is considered, thus local opportunities and challenges can be presented with pinpoint accuracy.
