2021 Award Winners
Award-winning project: Climate-neutral urban district – New West City Esslingen
Project partners: Berlin Institute for Social Research (BIS) | Green Hydrogen Esslingen (GHE) | Esslingen University of Applied Sciences with the Institute for Sustainable Energy Technology and Mobility | HyEnTec, Zell unter Aichelberg | mondayVision, Stuttgart | Polarstern, Munich | Esslingen Municipal Transport Authority (SVE) | City of Esslingen | Steinbeis Innovation Center energieplus, Stuttgart | TU Braunschweig with the Institute for Building Climatology and Energy of Architecture | Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) Stuttgart/Ulm
The award-winning project is based on an approach involving on-site electricity generation from renewable energy sources, local hydrogen production and the use of waste heat to supply the neighbourhood with heating.
It is based on the integrated energy and sustainability concept developed by the Steinbeis Innovation Centre energie plus, led by Professor Dr.-Ing. M. Norbert Fisch. The green hydrogen is fed into the city’s natural gas network, thereby contributing to the decarbonisation of the energy sector. The waste heat generated during water electrolysis is fed into the neighbourhood’s local heating network.
The ‘real-world laboratory’ for the energy transition, situated on a 12-hectare inner-city site, forms the core of the project and comprises around 500 residential units, office and commercial spaces, as well as a new building for Esslingen University of Applied Sciences. The overarching aim is to create a virtually climate-neutral neighbourhood.
In the project, this is defined as CO₂ emissions of less than one metric tonne per capita per year for housing and transport, which is achieved, amongst other things, by reducing energy demand, a high level of solar irradiation (approx. 1,500 kilowatts peak), the utilisation of waste heat from hydrogen production, and the use of imported biomethane in combined heat and power plants. A central element of the neighbourhood’s energy supply is a hydrogen electrolyser with an electrical output of 1,000 kilowatts. The electricity used comes from the photovoltaic systems installed on the building roofs and, predominantly, from generation plants that supply surplus renewable electricity from outside via the public grid. The waste heat from the electrolyser is used via a local heating network to cover around half of the heating requirements of the residential and commercial areas and the university.
This increases the annual efficiency of the electrolysis process to around 85 to 90 per cent. The initial ideas for a climate-neutral urban quarter in 2015 were followed by a lengthy planning, approval and construction process; in June 2021, the commissioning of hydrogen production was celebrated with the funding bodies. The project received funding of around 12 million euros from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the ‘Solar Construction/Energy-Efficient City’ initiative.