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HighTech - LowEx: Energy efficient Berlin-Adlershof 2020
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The Adlershof campus in May 2011
© Adlershof Projekt
Berlin Adlershof, Berlin’s largest business, science and media centre with an international reputation, is growing rapidly. Despite its expansion and the variable underlying conditions, the aim of the cluster project as part of EnEff:Stadt is to significantly reduce the energy consumption of the overall site. The intention is to save 30% of the primary energy by 2020 by developing an innovative energy concept, improving and linking buildings and systems in energy terms, utilising waste heat and open heating networks as well as using intelligent electricity networks and renewable energies.
Settlement summary
| Project status |  Planning |
|---|---|
| Location of local community | 12489 Berlin-Adlershof, Bezirk Treptow-Köpenick, Berlin |
| Settlement in figures | 891.85 km² total area; 3,490,445 inhabitants |
| Developer, organizer | WISTA-Management GmbH; Technische Universität Berlin; BTB Blockheizkraftwerks-, Träger und Betreibergesellschaft mbH Berlin |
| Settlement | Integrated science, business and media centre |
| Utilisation type | General residential, mixed areas, commerce, industry, special areas |
| Above-surface gross floor area of the building stock (2010) | 1.244.000 m² |
| Surface area of the built-on building plots excluding green areas and traffic, before | 1.485.703 m² |
| Surface area of the built-on building plots excluding green areas and traffic, after | 2.787.164 m² |
| Commercial area, before | 806.833 m² |
| Commercial area, after | 1.675.064 m² |
| Research & technology area, before | 358.590 m² |
| Research & technology area, after | 388.592 m² |
| Media & communication area, before | 136.645 m² |
| Media & communication area, after | 163.670 m² |
| University area, before | 70.157 m² |
| University area, after | 92.921 m² |
| Remaining area, before | 113.478 m² |
| Remaining area, after | 466.917 m² |
| Number of accommodation units, after | 1.040 |
| Number of jobs, before | 14.148 |
| Age structure | Around 41% of the building stock was constructed before 1989. About half of this stock has been renovated. Almost half of the overall building stock was not constructed until after 1989. |
| State of construction and refurbishment | 64% of the gross floor area needs to be at least partly renovated, whereby there is also scope for energy efficiency measures. |
| Heating system | 90% of the heating requirement is met by the district heating supply provided by BTB using cogeneration (approx. 70%). BTB uses the following fuels for the district heating supply: hard coal, natural gas and wood (approx. 52%). |
| Ownership structure | Mixed ownership conditions with currently almost 100 individual owners. The largest single owners are the Federal State of Berlin and WISTA-Management GmbH. |
| Project themes |
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Project description
Berlin-Adlershof, the "science, business and media city", is one of the most successful high-tech centres in Germany. It forms an important component in Berlin’s scientific and economic development and enjoys an excellent reputation internationally. Currently covering an area of 420 hectares, this site is one of the largest urban development areas in Europe. As a result of an increase in density and the establishment of high-tech and scientific facilities on an additional 40 hectares of land, the energy requirement of the site will almost double by 2020. In view of this, an energy concept is being developed for the entire 460-hectare project area, which, by integrating state-of-the-art energy efficiency measures and incorporating the entire potential offered by the site, intends to:
- Reduce the primary energy consumption in the project area by at least 30% in comparison with "business as usual",
- Optimise the energy supply security given the unclear underlying conditions – approximately 47% of the overall site has not yet been built –, and
- Create transferable planning tools.
Existing site
The "science, business and media city" is situated to the southeast of Berlin’s city centre in the district of Adlershof, near Schönefeld International Airport. The site used to belong to Johannisthal Airport, which was already used as a research and science centre during the GDR era and has developed in recent years into one of the largest and most successful centres for high technology, industries, media, science and research in Germany.
In particular, the 420-hectare site is home to numerous technology-based industrial, service and commercial enterprises as well as teaching and research facilities. The synergies between research and business at this site are exemplary. 866 companies and 17 scientific facilities have so far located to the project area, including from the biotechnology, photovoltaic, optical, information technology and microsystem technology sectors. Some of these technology and research establishments have a very high energy requirement, for example the Berliner Elektronenspeicherring-Gesellschaft für Synchrotronstrahlung (BESSY) belonging to Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH. The "Mediacity" site also has a very high energy requirement. As part of a rough analysis, the final energy requirement (basis year 2009) for electricity was estimated to be approximately 180 GWh p.a. (based on the German Energy Saving Ordinance (EnEV) and electricity from process engineering) and approximately 275 GWh p.a. for heating.
Around 14,100 people work in the project area.
Six institutes from the Humboldt University are situated within the project area – for chemistry, geography, IT, mathematics, physics and psychology – with around 7,800 students and 1,000 members of staff. Around 21,000 people currently live, work and study in the entire project area.
The buildings partly consist of refurbished old buildings and new buildings with spectacular architecture. Around 40% of the building stock was constructed before 1989, whereby around half has been refurbished at the current time. 90% of the entire building stock is supplied with district heating via a district heating network. The network, which is operated by the RWE subsidiary, BTB GmbH, had a connected load of around 43,300 kW with around 2,000 EOH in 2009.
Project aims
The overriding goal of the project is to produce an integrated energy concept for the Berlin Adlershof site that will reduce the primary energy requirement by at least 30% in relation to a comparison scenario ("business as usual"). Based on a forecast total primary energy use of 1,770 GWh p.a. for providing electricity (EnEV and process engineering) and heating in 2020, this aim corresponds to a primary energy reduction of around 530 GWh p.a. The energy concept needs to ensure that this objective can be achieved.
The intention is to develop an implementable and energy-saving supply concept. However, this is subordinate to a more far-reaching scientific objective: in producing energy concepts, several options are generally excluded, mostly due to a lack of time. The alliance is therefore particularly keen to develop new knowledge and approaches to such themes so that they can be taken into account in the resulting concept. For this purpose, the following working goals have been defined:
- Feed-in possibilities: A heating network structure needs to be developed in terms of both technical and legal aspects that enables the efficient and economic local supply of heat flows.
- Waste heat utilisation: Technical prerequisites need to be created that enable usable waste heat flows to be used efficiently in accordance with their temperature.
- Combined heating, cooling and power generation: Existing tools need to be refined for this purpose and supplemented in terms of the storage possibilities, particularly in the network. The operation is determined by demand side management, which means that this aspect also needs to be incorporated into the concept.
- Adaptability: Since supply areas are never static but are subject to the requirements caused by permanent, fluctuating changes (not just growth!), the sustainable network structure needs to be adaptable. This requires, for example, tools for planning under uncertain conditions.
Furthermore, in order to successfully implement a concept in Berlin-Adlershof, the following working goals should also be mentioned that are more closely related to applied research and development than the aforementioned aspects:
- Knowledge of the energy flows and underlying conditions: Although detailed data provide, of course, a basic prerequisite for producing the concept, the acceptance of the possible concepts by the residents, users and operators as well as possible hurdles also need to be investigated and taken into account.
- Energy efficiency: Firstly, this relates to the needs (reducing building energy requirements through architectural and building technology measures and reducing industrial energy requirements through mechanical and process engineering-related measures). Secondly, this relates to operational management measures. In addition, incorporating renewable energies in the supply system can also increase the efficiency.
Project structure, implementation
The project, which is entitled "High Tech – Low Ex: Energy efficient Berlin Adlershof 2020", is being implemented under the auspices of WISTA as part of an alliance consisting of BTB, TU Berlin and WISTA. The entire project is being supported by the Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment.
Within the alliance, BTB is conducting the sub-project "Supplying renewable and efficient heating to a development area with small-scale building by means of a joint heating network against the background of the German Renewable Energies Heat Act". This is described in short as the "Joint heating network, living on campus".
The Technische Universität Berlin is taking part in the sub-project "Efficient technologies at the Adlershof science campus". WISTA Management GmbH is an investment company belonging to the Federal State of Berlin and is the campus operator in Adlershof. It is conducting the "Planning tools, participation and implementation scenarios" sub-project. It is also in charge of the overall project management.
In order to support the energy efficient design of Adlershof, a competence network has been initiated consisting of energy suppliers, authorities, research institutions, the campus operator and the development agency.
Energy characteristics
| before | potential | after | unit | |
| Total area with energy requirement | 1.244.000,00 | m² | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final energy requirements (electricity) | 108,00 | kWh/m² | ||
| Final energy requirements (heat) | 104,00 | kWh/m² |
