How a German Village Created an Independent Grid and a Renewable Energy Future

Laurie Guevara- Stone  ::  Rocky Mountain Institute  ::  February 20, 2014

Regardless of debate about the success of Germany’s renewables revolution, there is no denying that a small town in the corner of rural eastern Germany, 40 miles south of Berlin, may be one of the best examples of decentralized self-sufficiency.

Feldheim (population: 150), in the cash-strapped state of Brandenburg, was a communist collective farm back when Germany was still divided into East and West. Now, it is a model renewable energy village putting into practice Germany’s vision of a renewably powered future.

In 1995, a local entrepreneur paid for Feldheim’s first wind turbine. As farmers started to worry when prices for their milk, potatoes, and beets began to fall and energy prices started to rise, they learned they could earn cash by renting their land to energy companies wanting to install a wind turbine. A local renewable energy company, Energiequelle GmbH, saw the potential as well, and decided to install a wind farm in Feldheim. Forty-three wind turbines with an installed capacity of 74.1 megawatt (MW) soon dotted the Feldheim landscape, providing income to farmers who leased their land to the energy company.

Renewable fervor was catching on, and in 2008 Energiequelle bought a 111-acre former Soviet military site about five miles from Feldheim, cleaned up the toxic military waste and hidden ammunition and constructed a 284-panel solar farm that produces over 2,700 MW hours per year. Its power is fed into the grid at the feed-in-tariff rate.

Photo credit: Energiequelle

That same year, the town of Feldheim and Energiequelle established a joint venture, called Feldheim Energie GmbH & Co. The new company built a biogas factory that converts pig manure and unused corn into heat, taking advantage of the community’s 700 pigs and 1,700 acres of arable farmland. The biogas plant is fed from the town’s agricultural cooperative and produces of electricity a year. A 400-kilowatt, wood-chip furnace fueled by the byproduct of forest thinning helps to firm the power from wind and biogas.

By 2009 Feldheim was producing all its own energy with renewable sources. Residents then wanted to take things a step further and free themselves from the large utility company, E.on, which was supplying the grid.

E.on refused to either sell or lease the part of its energy grid that ran through Feldheim. So the people took the matter into their own hands, and decided to build their own. Each of the 150 residents contributed 3,000 Euros (~$4,000 at today’s exchange rates) so that they could build their own smart grid. With help from Energiequelle and financing from the European Union and government subsidies, the smart grid was completed in 2010, making Feldheim then the only town in Germany with its own mini-grid. This allows the locally produced heat and electricity to be fed straight to consumers and gives them control over their electrical prices, which are set at community meetings.

They now pay 31 percent less for electricity and 10 percent less for heating than before. The town consumes less than one percent of the electricity produced annually by its wind turbines and solar panels, selling the rest back to the market. This lowers their electricity bills to around half the national average. The biogas plant not only sells electricity back to the market, but also supplies the entire community with heating, saving over 160,000 liters of heating oil each year. As an added benefit, the plant produces over three million gallons of high-quality fertilizer annually that the agricultural cooperative uses.

Feldheim has also installed a plug-and-pay EV charging station in the town center, and next plans to install a 10-MW battery later this year. The storage will help balance the community microgrid’s generation and load.

There are now more wind turbines than houses in the town. While residents don’t mind the noise or aesthetics of the wind turbines, there has been some opposition from neighboring towns, which didn’t—until recently—directly benefit from the wind farm. “In order to make neighbors feel more at ease with the wind farm, we are offering power at a special rate,” Energiequelle spokesman Werner Frohwitter told Rocky Mountain Institute. “Our aim is to let as many people as possible directly benefit from our turbines, thus encouraging social acceptance for renewable energies.”

All the renewable projects also created jobs. While other villages in the economically depressed state of Brandenburg have roughly a 30 percent unemployment rate, Feldheim virtually erased its unemployment. Most residents work in the biogas plant or maintain the wind and solar farms. And the town, which has not a single museum or restaurant, has seen an influx of visitors. Three thousand people visit the small town of 150 each year. This has prompted the foundation of a new organization, Förderverein des Neuen Energieforums Feldheim (Friends of the New Energies Forum Feldheim), which is converting an old inn into a renewable energy information and training center. The hope is that when the center opens in the fall of 2014 it will bring even more visitors to Feldheim, generating more jobs and income for the villagers.

Feldheim has proven that a high-renewables energy future is possible today. “There have been and are still occurring remarkable changes (in Feldheim),” says Frohwitter. The small town is thriving thanks to its confidence in renewable energy technologies.

Conversion to biomass intensifies on Prince Edward Island

Following is an English translation of the Radio Canada news piece that was done by Kent South NSG  using Google Translator. We apologize for any translation errors, but the gist of article is the same.  Congratulations to this Cocagne native and his passion to make a difference.

Prince Edward Island is using forest residues to heat its schools and hospitals, and the craze for this source of stable and economic energy is growing.  The heating system of new schools, hospitals and homes are already converted to use biomass. More than a dozen other institutions will follow within two years.  Biomass is the cheapest source of energy. The savings are on average 15% to 20 % compared to fossil fuels. The island government saves $ 120,000 per year in heating costs.

In New Brunswick , the contractor Mathieu LeBlanc is cutting of trees of lower quality to allow more room for trees to live longer and have greater commercial value, such as spruce, maple, white pine. Wood that has no capacity for sawing is being made ​​into paper or chips.

"My logging practices can heat a school for one year with the amount of biomass that is being cut every two weeks ," said Mathieu LeBlanc.

Mathieu LeBlanc cut the wood in New Brunswick , but it is on the Island of Prince Edward Island that transforms and sells chips to produce energy.

The chips are delivered by another Acadian, Dick Arsenault of the Evangeline region.  It was he who developed the boilers that will burn the wood chips for space heating and water heating.

"It's been seven years since I worked on the design and concept. It took a lot of time in the beginning to make them see what I wanted to do.  We have already installed five systems, and has more coming on line, "says Dick Arsenault, ACFOR of Energy.

Dick Arsenault and Mathieu LeBlanc work as a small energy company . They do not sell the chips or the boiler.  It costs the province nothing to convert to biomass.  The government will pay only for the energy that its buildings consume. That is where the concept is revolutionary.

"It costs them nothing . It cost the province nothing to the province. This is our own money. There is no government money in these projects. The only thing we require is a 20-yeR contract to heat the school. It's really appealing for them. It costs them nothing in capital."

-Dick Arsenault, ACFOR Energy

The cost of energy from wood chips is not influenced by international markets as is the case for gas or oil. The cost can fluctuate with the exception of inflation. This provides energy that is more stable.

"Biomass is produced locally, so you do not need to import [ oil ] or natural gas. That is why it is much cheaper.  It is not tied to global markets.  The technology and existing forests to produce wood chips is available locally, so no need to plant.  This is why the cost of biomass is less. "

- Mathieu LeBlanc , entrepreneur

When Mathieu LeBlanc and Dick Arsenault began in 2008,  few people believed in their project. In the midst of economic crisis and forestry, factories closed one after the other. Today the situation has changed.

In Finland, 85% of renewable energy comes from forest biomass.  Mathieu LeBlanc believes that it is quite conceivable achieve the same in Canada. "The Finns converted when they were cut off from [oil] by Russia. Finland has many forests. Yes, it is very conceivable.", he said.

La conversion à la biomasse s'intensifie à l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard

Radio Canada article (French) regarding biomass being used to heat public buildings using sustainable biomass practices.  Too bad this Cocagne NB native had to go to PEI to fulfill his dream while the government of New Brrunswick caters  to the Irving corporate ambitions.  Check out the link for the full story.

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/regions/atlantique/2014/05/05/001-conversion-biomasse-ile-du-prince-edouard.shtml

Good news for forest industry is not good news for our forest or communities

Conservation Council of New Brunswick  ::  November 15, 2013

Fredericton – Premier David Alward is promising good news for the forest industry in response to their lobbying efforts for long-term access to timber supply. The Conservation Council encourages the Alward government to consider the long-term health of New Brunswick’s mixedwood forest and our forest dependent communities in the face of pressure to give away more of our public forest to an industry concerned foremost with profit.

“What’s good for the forest industry is not good for our forest and our communities. Timber harvested from public land in New Brunswick reached a record high of 5.4 million cubic metres in 2006/2007 at a time when mill closures across the province were leaving scores of people unemployed and communities devastated. It’s time to write a new story for our forest–one where corporations do not control it, clearcut it and convert it into tree farms, one where our people take care of it, bring it back to health and make a meaningful living from its diverse and bountiful products and services,” says Tracy Glynn, Forest Campaign Director at the Conservation Council.

An all-party legislative committee on wood supply, formed in response to public outcry to industry demands to double the rate of cut in the public forest, made 24 recommendations based on public input it received in 2004. Recommendations included reducing the amount of clearcutting, maintaining natural forest diversity and assigning wood allocations to communities when mills close. The recommendations were largely ignored by every government that has since formed in New Brunswick.

New Brunswick’s forest is a meeting place where the northern boreal forest blends with southern hardwood forests creating remarkable biodiversity and beauty. “There are 32 native tree species found in New Brunswick’s forest but a drive along New Brunswick highways often reveals plantations of pine, spruce or fir that look nothing like an old mixedwood forest,” says Glynn.

Today, New Brunswick no longer has any large intact naturally undisturbed forests outside our parks and we continue to douse our lands with chemicals to stop natural regrowth to grow tree farms: observations that the Conservation Council has researched, mapped and communicated to the public for decades.

Resistance against forest degradation for private accumulation of wealth has and continues to be resisted in New Brunswick. Indigenous peoples have never consented to the clearcutting of forest on lands they never ceded. Workers in Northern New Brunswick woods burned harvesting machines when they first entered the woods in the 1980s. University students rallied against clearcutting the Christmas Mountains in the 1990s. People from Kedgwick in the north to Alma in the south have rallied and gone to markets and shopping malls to collect signatures to petitions against spraying our forests with herbicides.

A 2008 survey of public attitudes on forest management of public lands carried out by researchers at the University of New Brunswick and the Canadian Forest Service for the Department of Natural Resources showed that New Brunswickers felt that protection of water and biodiversity should be priorities over ensuring more wood supply for the industry in forest management. CCNB was ranked high as organizations most trusted to have a say in forest management.

“Many people in our forest-dependent communities made a living in the woods for over a century but few do so today with the closure of mills and woodlot owners unable to compete with the cheap wood that J.D. Irving harvests from our public forest. We have people across this province asking for support for community forest initiatives. It’s time that the government support those efforts,” said Glynn.

Tracy Glynn, Forest Campaign Director, Conservation Council, 458-8747, forest@conservationcouncil.ca

Is Our Forest Really Ours?

Des bonnes nouvelles pour l’industrie forestière n’en sont pas pour nos forêts et communautés

Communiqué de presse du Conseil de conservation du Nouveau-Brunswick 15 November 2013

Le gouvernement du Premier David Alward promet à l’industrie forestière de bonnes nouvelles, et ce en réponse à leurs pressions envers l’approvisionnement à long terme en bois. Le Conseil de conservation encourage le gouvernement Alward à considérer le bien-être à long terme de la forêt mixte du Nouveau-Brunswick et de nos communautés dépendant des forêts, face à la pression de donner davantage de forêts à une industrie avant tout soucieuse des profits.

“Ce qui est bon pour l’industrie forestière ne l’est pas pour nos forêts et communautés. La quantité de bois récolté dans les terres publiques du Nouveau-Brunswick a atteint un record de près de 5.4 millions de mètres cubes en 2006/2007, à une époque où les fermetures de scieries laissaient un nombre important de gens sans emploi et les communautés dévastées. Il est temps d’écrire une nouvelle histoire pour notre forêt, une histoire où les corporations ne la contrôlent pas, ne la coupent pas à blanc et ne la convertissent pas en exploitations d’arbres. Nous voulons une forêt dont les gens prennent soin, à laquelle ils redonnent une santé et grâce aux abondants produits et services de laquelle ils gagnent leur vie,” dit Tracy Glynn, directrice de la campagne Forêt au Conseil de conservation.

Un comité législatif pour l’approvisionnement en bois réunissant toutes les parties, formé en réponse au tollé général du public suite aux demandes de l’industrie de doubler le nombre de coupes dans la forêt publique, a fait 24 recommandations basées sur les contributions du public reçues en 2004. Ces recommandations incluent la réduction de la quantité de coupes à blanc, le maintien de la diversité forestière naturelle et l’attribution de bois aux collectivités lorsque les scieries ferment. Ces recommandations ont été ignorées par chaque gouvernement qui a depuis lors été formé au Nouveau-Brunswick.

La forêt du Nouveau-Brunswick se situe à la jonction entre la forêt boréale au nord et la forêt de feuillus au sud, ce qui crée une diversité et une beauté remarquables. “Il existe 32 espèces d’arbres indigènes dans la forêt du Nouveau-Brunswick, mais lorsqu’on voyage le long des autoroutes on ne voit souvent que des plantations de pins, d’épicéas et d’épinettes qui ne ressemblent en rien à une ancienne forêt feuillue et mixte,” dit Glynn.

Aujourd’hui, en dehors de ses parcs, le Nouveau-Brunswick n’offre plus de grandes étendues de forêts intactes et naturelles. De plus, on continue à épandre des produits chimiques pour arrêter les repousses naturelles et ainsi faire pousser les plantations d’arbres. Ce sont des observations que le Conseil de conservation a réalisées, cartographiées et communiquées au public depuis des dizaines d’années.

La résistance contre la dégradation de la forêt pour la création privée de richesses a et continue à susciter des réactions au Nouveau-Brunswick. Les peuples indigènes n’ont jamais consenti à la coupe à blanc des forêts qu’ils n’ont jamais cédées. Les gens qui travaillent dans les forêts au nord du Nouveau-Brunswick ont brûlé les machines quand ils sont entrés dans les forêts dans les années 80. Les étudiants universitaires ont rallié la cause contre les coupes à blanc dans les monts Christmas dans les années 90. De nombreuses personnes, depuis Kedgwick au nord jusqu’à Alma au sud, se sont jointes au mouvement et se sont rendues sur les marchés et dans les centres commerciaux pour récolter des signatures de pétitions contre l’épandage de pesticides sur nos forêts.

En 2008, une enquête sur les réactions du public à propos de la gestion des forêts publiques, menée par des chercheurs de l’Université du Nouveau-Brunswick et du Service canadien des forêts du ministère des Ressources naturelles, a montré que les Néo-Brunswickois pensent que la protection de l’eau et de la biodiversité devraient supplanter l’augmentation de l’approvisionnement en bois pour l’industrie forestière. CCNB a été classé en haut de l’échelle parmi les organisations les plus dignes de confiance qui ont leur mot à dire dans la gestion des forêts.

“Beaucoup de gens dans nos communautés dépendant des forêts vivaient des bois depuis plus de cent ans, mais peu d’entre eux y arrivent encore aujourd’hui avec la fermeture des scieries et les propriétaires de bois incapables de rivaliser avec le bois bon marché que J.D. Irving récolte dans notre forêt publique. Des gens à travers toute la province nous contactent pour recevoir du support envers des initiatives forestières communautaires. Il est temps que le gouvernement supporte ces efforts,” dit Glynn.

Tracy Glynn, directrice de la campagne Forêts, Conseil de conservation, 458-8747, forest@conservationcouncil.ca

Is Our Forest Really Ours?