This is how the energy transition works

 

 

Mayor Erwin Karg welcomed us to the town hall meeting room in Fuchstal/Leeder and showed us the Bavarian Climate Protection Prize 2024, which the municipality was awarded on the same day, three years after being awarded the national sustainability prize.

 

When he was first elected mayor in 2002, he found little money and no reserves.

His first statement: ‘Energy transition is always possible, even with little money’!

The basis for this is a balanced relationship between photovoltaics and wind power. By its very nature, the electricity harvest from photovoltaics is at its peak in the summer months, while the wind blows harder in the winter months. This results in a roughly constant electricity yield throughout the year. 2006

The path to energy transition was more of a coincidence. It started with a private initiative to build a biogas plant in this year, which was designed from the outset to generate electricity but also to use the heat produced in the process.

 

2009

This year marks the beginning of the energy transition in the community. However, it was more of a coincidence, there was no goal and therefore no plan for implementation.Since the operator of the biogas plant lost the customer for the heat, he offered the municipality the opportunity to use this heat. At that time, the municipality's secondary school had an oil heating system that was in need of renewal, so it was decided to use the heat offered to heat the school. The first heat pipe with a length of approx. 1.7 km was built.

2010

The farmer of one of the best-managed farms in the area decided to install a private PV system that year. ‘If this farmer makes such an investment, it must be profitable,’ noted Mayor Karg. So the municipality began installing photovoltaics.

 

2011
construction of a ground-mounted PV system on a disused gravel pit. In 2019 and 2021, the system was expanded and now achieves an annual output of two MW. For a further expansion, consideration is being given to changing the orientation of the systems from south to east/west. The greatest yield from PV is when the system is facing south around midday, but more electricity is consumed in the morning and evening.

2012

The then Prime Minister Horst Seehofer declared that about 1,500 windmills would have to be erected in Bavaria. A simple calculation showed that with 71 districts, each would need about 20 windmills, although of course the existing conditions would have to be taken into account. The mayors of the communities in the rural district of Landsberg/Lech sat down together. The military airfield Lagerlechfeld is located in the northern part of the rural district of Landsberg, so these communities were immediately eliminated. The central area was eliminated because of the lower limit of the flight altitudes around the airfield. So only the communities in the southern area remained: Unterdießen, Fuchstal and Denklingen.

Fuchstal immediately set about checking the possible locations, and about 70 potential sites were examined. In order to keep everything in the hands of the community, the community itself was the project planner and commissioned an engineering firm with the planning.

 

As always with such projects, there was opposition in the community. At the turn of the year 2013/2014, signatures were collected for a referendum against the construction of the wind turbines. The quorum was reached. In 2014, there were municipal elections in March and European elections in May. Setting an additional date for the referendum would have been a considerable effort, so the referendum was scheduled to take place at the same time as the European elections. Result: 52.7% rejected the proposal, so the turbines could be erected.

A ‘citizen wind farm’ was planned from the outset. 50% of the shares remain with the community, 50% could be subscribed to as cooperative shares. Reaching the necessary sum for the first plant proved difficult. Too few Fuchsthal citizens participated, so the shares were offered in the wider area. 115 shareholders were found for the first four plants.

 

Thanks to the municipality's early decision, all possibilities for funding, favourable contracts and low costs and interest rates could be utilised. The plants were built in the forest of the Bavarian State Forestry Department. In the meantime – eight years later – the payments made have almost been compensated for by the distribution of the yields. The municipality has an annual yield of around 1 million euros for the municipal budget.

 

2016

The first four wind turbines went into operation. 30 km of 20-kV power cable was laid to transport the electricity generated.

 

  

 

In this year, a federal funding project was launched to reduce CO2. Funding was provided according to the motto: the lowest possible input for the highest possible savings. With these requirements in mind, the project ‘Wärmetopf’, a power-to-heat system, was developed. An application was made for a capacity of 10,000 m3. During the project planning phase, however, it became clear that it would make more sense to feed the surplus electricity into a battery storage system. ‘Surplus electricity’ is electricity that is generated when too much electricity is fed into the grid and the PV and wind power plants are forcibly shut down.

Therefore, the capacity was increased to 5,000 m3 and a lithium-ion battery storage system with a capacity of 5.6 MW was installed. The entire plant went into operation in 2021, cost 5.9 million euros and received 75% funding.

 

2019

The profitable operation of the four wind turbines led to the decision to construct a further three turbines. Here, too, the proven concept of citizen participation was used and shares were again offered to achieve the 30% equity share. This time, the result was contrary to the first tender. Word had got around that a share in the wind turbines was a profitable investment. The shares were quickly oversubscribed, so that this time 256 shareholders could be considered.

2023

Three more wind turbines were delivered and installed. The turbines were scheduled to go online in October 2023. When the rotor blades were inspected, it turned out that all nine had longitudinal cracks of an unacceptable length due to incorrect storage during the long transport (delivery from China!), and so all had to be replaced. One rotor was so badly damaged that it could no longer be recycled and is still waiting to be removed from the interim storage facility. After the new rotor blades were installed, the turbines went into operation in April 2024.

2024

A pilot project for an electrolyser to produce hydrogen is currently being developed in collaboration with the universities of Munich, Augsburg and Braunschweig. This project is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

These measures will make it possible, in cooperation with the grid operator, to ensure island operation to maintain the power supply in the Fuchstaler area in the event of possible large-scale power outages. Such energy islands are also extremely important for ramping up the energy supply after a blackout.

After the serious but humorously presented facts in the town hall, a bus took us to visit the wind turbines. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the first plant, which is located about five kilometres from the centre of Leeder, almost nothing could be seen. The fog enveloped the rotor and it only moved very slowly. This wind turbine is the southernmost of the first four wind turbines. The turbines are lined up with a distance of about 600 metres. As we could hear, the next turbine, further north, and also the nearest new turbine, south of the line, were running. This phenomenon occurs relatively often: one of the wind turbines has very little wind, but all the others have enough.

About 200 metres from the wind turbine, Karg showed us another pilot and research project: the first bird monitoring system in a forest area. The project is being carried out by the TUM Weihenstephan. The costs of about 1.2 million euros are being borne by the state. When the first systems were built, there were no problems with the red kite. Within a few years, however, the population in the area in question increased sixfold.

The plant, which has two monitoring towers, reacts as soon as a red kite is still 350 metres from a plant on approach. The plant then slowly shuts down and turns out of the wind. The protection of birds is thus guaranteed, and the plant works perfectly. The shutdown time per wind turbine is about 30 minutes a day.

After that, we went to one of the new wind turbines, which are 20 metres higher and have correspondingly longer rotor blades. The yield of the three new turbines is therefore equivalent to that of the four older ones. It was also possible to reduce the size of the foundation. The foundation is built on the ground surface, the turbine stands about two metres above ground level and thus does not interfere with groundwater flows, as is often falsely claimed.

A large free area around the plant was noticeable. The deforestation is necessary for the construction of the crane and the storage of the rotor blades. Since it is assumed that a generator has a lifespan of about 20 years, it is necessary to keep the area free for the then necessary construction of a crane. Reforestation is not an option for this reason.

Therefore, the idea of a ‘short rotation plantation’ with fast-growing woods, which can then be processed into wood chips, was considered. However, a soil analysis showed that the soil is so compacted that planting would not be possible.

 

The plants are all located in the Sachsenrieder Forest, the second largest contiguous forest area in Upper Bavaria, partly in the municipal forest and partly in the state forests. Karg briefly touched on forestry here, as Fuchstal also deals with forest rejuvenation. The area is one of the few in Germany where spruce trees can still grow sustainably. The main deciduous trees growing among the spruce trees are beeches, but initially they grow faster than the spruce trees and thus prevent the latter from growing. So here you have to prevent the beeches from spreading too much.

Now we came to the last stop on our tour, the heart of the entire energy system with the control and monitoring of the various systems: biogas, wood chip heating, PV systems, wind power and a small hydroelectric power plant in the Lech. The battery block and the heat pot are located here. The battery is optimally charged and thus always has between 50% and 80% of its maximum capacity. In the heat exchanger, the water is layered, with a temperature of approx. 50° in the lower area and approx. 90° in the upper area.

 

  

 

Everything is heated according to the cost principle: first the cheapest heat from the biogas plant, then surplus electricity and, if necessary, wood chips.

At the moment there are three heating circuits: the secondary school with sports hall and kindergarten, which has been connected for a long time. One circuit supplies parts of Leeder, another parts of Asch. The construction of the pipes is expensive, so whenever road works (sewers, etc.) are necessary, the pipes for the district heating are laid at the same time. There is the possibility for two more heating circuits.

  

 

When it comes to district heating, it should be noted that it is particularly worthwhile for older detached houses. Heating apartment buildings is problematic because, due to the legionella problem, the hot water must be heated to 70°C if the water temperature is below 60°C. This is not possible with the existing delivered heat alone. The construction of the connecting pipes is also quite expensive, so that a connection of individual buildings does not pay off either.

 

Finally, Mayor Karg revealed the secret of success:

• Plan in good time for the general public – individual interests must be subordinated to this
• Exploit all available funding
• Plan sustainably
  
  

Fuchstal has an annual income of around 1.5 million euros from trade tax, plus a further 1-1.4 million euros from sustainable energy generation and income from rentals and leases – the municipality has built a number of residential buildings and leased commercial property – of a further 0.5 million or so.

This means that projects such as the energy-efficient renovation of buildings, a new large children's playground and a new fire station can be realised.

 

As a citizen of Fuchstal, I can only say: unfortunately, the 2026 election period and thus also the time of Erwin Karg as mayor will come to an end. We are losing a ‘fox’ in the valley. But he has definitely earned a quieter period of life.