8th May 2008

Europe's biggest apartment construction project with geothermal heat supply will be presented at the CARBON EXPO

Reducing emissions and sustainability is becoming increasingly important for cities, communities and local authorities. Particularly when it comes to creating attractive, environmentally-friendly living spaces. Working with Koelnmesse, the city of Cologne will be presenting measures and technologies that are already in place to actively support CO2 reduction and achieve energy efficiency at a local level at CARBON EXPO 2008. The global conference trade fair for emissions trading and projects that reduce CO2 will take place at Koelnmesse from 7 to 9 May and will bring together over 2,600 people from the climate protection market in more than 100 different countries. The projects and technologies showcased at the city of Cologne stand include:

- Europe's largest apartment construction project with geothermal heat supply
- Solar housing
- 37% reduction in CO2 with eco electricity
- Hydrogen as the energy source of the future

A few months ago NRW Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Christa Thoben, launched the biggest geothermal-powered apartment construction project in Europe to date, along with Günter Ott and Uwe Eichner (members of the Management Board of GAG Immobilien AG) . 383 attractive, energy-saving apartments and houses are being built on seven construction sites on the former Siemens premises in Niehl, Cologne. They are innovative and forward-looking in many ways. A total of 21 standpipes and modern heat pump technology ensure that the thermal use of the available groundwater results in savings of up to 50% in energy costs for home owners and tenants. According to the experts, the additional costs will be written off completely in seven to ten years. The project conserves the environment, reduces CO2 emissions by around 30% and will pay off in the future. For the experts, this environmentally-friendly technology is a trailblazer for the implementation of larger construction projects. The houses are being built as KfW Energy Saving Houses 60. This means that the annual energy requirements are less than 60 kilowatt hours for every square metre of living space, thus generating extremely low energy costs.

The Westend solar housing estate will be presented as the second innovative project by GAG Immobilien AG as an example of the city's energy efficiency at CARBON EXPO. 144 old apartments dating back to 1963 and consuming 30 litres of energy per square metre of living space every year were turned into 4.5 litre houses. This corresponds to energy savings of up to 85% and up to 90% lower costs.

This project has the potential to set trends by combining wood pellet-powered heating with solar therminology and heating support for heating domestic water. For the first time in Cologne, a pollutant control system was fitted at the Westend housing estate. It filters out 90% of the dust produced by the wood pellet heating system. The energy gained from this is used for heating and reduces energy consumption still further. The modern mix of technology reduces the energy costs/additional costs for tenants from around €2.97 to €0.21 for every square metre of living space. Two of the five rows of houses are south-facing. Here, electricity is generated using a photovoltaic system and flows into the electricity network. Thanks to continuous insulation throughout the building shell (14 centimetres thick), the renovated houses will be of the same standard as new low-energy houses when they are completed.

From April of next year around 50% of the 2,000 electricity demand points managed by the city of Cologne will be powered by eco-friendly electricity and electricity generated from combined heat and power systems. The order volume for the 110,000 megawatt hours of electricity the city needs every year costs a total of 45 billion euros for the three year period. By using eco-friendly electricity and combined heat and power-generated electricity for 50% of the total amount of electricity required, the related carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by around 47,000 tonnes. This is 37% less CO2 emissions than a comparable mixture of electricity from the power plants in the national electricity network.

Although the hydrogen energy market is currently small, dozens of companies in Germany alone are working on creating and marketing specific applications in area of hydrogen energy technology. HyCologne provides the environment needed for the technology of tomorrow in Cologne. In its first specific project, the association is currently developing a fleet of hydrogen-powered buses for the Rhine region. There are several chemical plants in the Cologne region (Leverkusen, Knapsack, Wesseling, Godorf) where large quantities of hydrogen are produced as a by-product of the chemicals industry. Just some of this hydrogen would be enough to run larger fleet projects using hydrogen as an energy source.

Cologne networks with other European cities to protect the environment The city of Cologne is working together with other European and international cities to protect the environment and our climate as part of the Eurocities, Climate Alliance and Polis city networks. Together, projects are being introduced to achieve more sustainable city management in the areas of transport, IT and energy.

The mayors of the two twinned cities Cologne and Rotterdam both signed a sustainability charter on 12 November 2007. Both cities thus pledged to work together to protect the climate and in the areas of energy efficiency and alternative energy. The charter is to be extended to include Turin, Esch-sur Alzette, Liège and Lille to mark twin town anniversaries in 2008.

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