Energy efficiency in public buildings – local transition strategies

Panel: 3. Local action and national examples

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Pia Laborgne, IWAR/TU Darmstadt and European Institute for Energy Research, Germany
Wilts Henning, IWAR/TU Darmstadt, Germany

Abstract

The Public building sector is a major field of action in local energy strategies. The influence of local authorities is significant, as they can act directly and the increase of energy efficiency in these buildings saves public money, thus making it very attractive.

The paper focuses on the role of local authorities as “consumer and model”, analyzing local strategies for increasing energy efficiency of public buildings. It discusses the importance of local social innovations like the creation of intermediaries. The idea is that the local level is not only the key level for implementation but also for developing and testing new approaches.

Three case studies in major German urban areas (Berlin, Frankfurt/Main, Ruhr) confirm this hypothesis. They have been realized in 2010-12 in the framework of an interdisciplinary research group on urban infrastructures. Results of two of them, Frankfurt/Main and Berlin, are presented here.

The core question is what role cities can play in the process of transforming the energy system, what specific local approaches for this exist and how they differ in different local contexts. The research refers to the multi-level perspective in transition research as well as to literature on large technical infrastructures as socio-technical systems and to concepts of social innovations.

The paper presents examples of innovative local strategies, e.g. a model for financing energy efficiency in public buildings in Berlin and the energy management in Frankfurt with its monitoring strategies and guidelines for the construction and refurbishment of public buildings. They have been analyzed on the basis of documents as well as of qualitative interviews with local key actors.

Both cities demonstrate the feasibility and trustworthiness of potential innovations, also playing an important role for a wider diffusion. They are “primary actors” (Geels 2011: 25) as well as “seedbeds and locations for radical innovations” (Ibid: 25).