5. Good Practice Example: City of Västerås s energy and climate adaption strategy

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "5. Good Practice Example: City of Västerås s energy and climate adaption strategy"

Stephanie Wilcox
7 years ago
Views:

1 5. Good Practice Example: City of Västerås s energy and climate adaption strategy Name and location for good practice example and responsible institution(s) City of Västerås s energy and climate adaption strategy Thematic focus: climate protection and low carbon urban development Area size: km2 (Urban area) Stakeholder: Municipality of Västerås; Bostads AB Mimer (Municipal Housing Company); Mälarenergi (Municipal Energy Company); List of relevant key words Climate change, district heating, low energy buildings, energy efficiency, low carbon urban development Background, objectives, implementation measures and financing Strategic background for low-carbon urban development Västerås is an industrial, retailing and logistics city located in central Sweden, about 100 km west of Stockholm. It has steady population growth of approximately 1000 inhabitants a year since 1990, for a total of inhabitants. In 2005, the Environmental Programme represented the starting point for new collaborative cross-sectoral working processes within the municipality of Västerås to tackle environmental challenges including climate change and sustainable energy. In 2007, the following Energy Plan defined more ambitious targets that induced the municipality and their companies to focus on new measures addressed to reduce energy consume and cut emission of greenhouse gases. Additionally, in the same year was adopted also a Climate Strategy, adding targets for the modal split of transport (focused on an increasing share of sustainable transport modes and a decreasing share of car traffic). In , was approved the Comprehensive Plan, constituted by a Climate Programme and a Traffic Plan, that set up strategies for a more sustainable, than previous plans, spatial and physical development of the city and the whole municipal area.

2 The Climate Programme and the Traffic Plan define more elaborated and specific targets and proposal of measures for the energy and transport sectors, by far more ambitious compared to the Climate Strategy of Low-energy buildings policy The Energy Plan was a catalyst for the municipality and companies for starting to work on energy efficiency and mitigation measures. In particular, the Real Estate Department investing an extra SEK 100 Million speeding up the implementation of retrofitting measures in existing buildings ( ), as shown in table 1. The Energy plan included a municipal policy of mandatory energy standards (low-energy buildings) for all developers building on land owned or sold by the municipality. In this context, the Real Estate Department ran a pilot project in the new development area of Gäddeholm, including development of calculating and evaluating methods and processes and definition of energy performance for the new buildings. This project supported the implementation of the low energy municipal policy. Low-temperature district heating In Västerås, the municipal energy company Mälarenergi owns the district heating grid (high temperature water distribution), the district cooling grid and the combined power and heat plant. It is the largest CHP plant in Sweden, with a production of 1680 GWh heat and 193 GWh electricity per year (2014) with a n efficiency of 87 percent. The grid has been developed since the 1950s and 98 percent of the housing units within the city are heated by district heating, and nearly three quarters of the one-family houses in the municipality are heated by this system. The new incinerator from 2014 reduced the CO2 emissions by half, by replacing most use of coal and peat with waste incineration. Although not a long term sustainable energy source, it uses waste in a more efficient way by incineration instead of land-filling. The relatively cheap electricity and higher energy performance of buildings have made it difficult for Mälarenergi to make it economically feasible to connect new one-family houses to the heating grid, inasmuch the policy on low-energy buildings on municipal land (mentioned above) made this impossible. To overcome this problem, Mälarenergi and the municipal Real Estate Department have developed a new low-temperature district heating concept (technical solutions combined with a business model) that makes it economically feasible to heat buildings and tap water with district heating. While buildings with poor energy standards require a quite high water temperature ( C), the new energy efficient buildings only need approximately (60 C). Hence, the steel tubes traditionally needed to distribute the high temperature water are replaced by plastic tubes in a local sub-distribution system for the new development area. The high temperature water from the main district heating grid is shifted down to 60 C in the sub system by using a heat exchanger. This low temperature system ( the Västerås Model ) means much lower costs: cheaper materials, easier instalments and a possibility to co-ordinate the instalment and digging with other technical infrastructure. Another part of the low-temperature district heating model is to run some of the household appliances (dishwashers, washing machines, tumbler dryers, towel dryers, bathroom floor heating) on district heating water instead of electricity. This slightly increases the heat density (kwh/m2) in the otherwise low heat density area, which makes district heating more feasible and electricity can be used for other purposes.

Cost benefit, effects and results achieved The implementation of the climate and energy adaption strategies have made able the municipality of Västerås to achieve good results in terms of energy

3 Cost benefit, effects and results achieved The implementation of the climate and energy adaption strategies have made able the municipality of Västerås to achieve good results in terms of energy consume reduction and innovation. Table 1: A selection of targets by 2015 according to the 2007 Energy Plan (numbers compared to the year of 2004). Images Mimer s new waterfront housing development Råseglet in central Västerås. (Source: AQ Arkitekter)

4 The Västerås Model for low-temperature district heating. (Source: Mälarenergi) Innovation fostered - local / regional developments triggered The City of Västerås energy and climate adaptation strategies since the new millennium has

5 paid off well. The strategies has stimulated new ways of thinking outside the box in order to fulfil sustainability targets and to make district heating more efficient and economically attractive. In particular, as well as the plans and new targets of sustainability, the main innovation is the low temperature district heating, that makes possible to connect low energy buildings to the district heating grid, working with a lower temperature than the normal heating systems thanks to the heat exchanger and allowing easier and cheaper instalments. In addition to that, the implementation in 2014 of a new burner suited for waste incineration, but also for bio-fuels, needed to supply energy to the combined power and heat plant, guarantees a high efficiency in heat and electricity production. The Västerås district heating will be a truly sustainable alternative for heating homes and workplaces. Clean district heating and electricity in combination with low energy houses is a really strong line-up in the competition of being the leading sustainable construction and energy city in Sweden. Lessons learnt practical recommendations Through the implementation of innovative low carbon plans and projects the City of Västerås is one of the leading authorities in Sweden in this field. Its solutions have stimulated the local authorities and local companies to work towards low energy consumption levels, at the same time even the local economy, especially in the construction sector.

Climate Commitments and Planning Actions in the City of Helsinki

Climate Commitments and Planning Actions in the City of Helsinki NOWA ENERGIA Smart Grid - Smart City Bielsko-Biała 13.9.2011 Katri Kuusinen Topics of the presentation Facts about Helsinki Energy Efficiency