Sustainable Energy in
Oberpfalz - Upper Palatinate

Copyright: KEWOG GmbH, ZREU

The Upper Palatinate (German: Oberpfalz) is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany. It has a total size of 9.691 km². The region is located in the east of the Free State of Bavaria. In the east, Upper Palatinate is bordering to the Czech Republic. 80 percent of the 1.081.417 inhabitants are living in rural areas.

Climate

The region of Upper Palatinate is mainly characterised by low range mountains and a high number of lakes and ponds. Due to being situated in the Eastern part of South Germany, the climate is rather cool and windy climate in comparison with other Bavarian and South German regions.

Economy

The gross domestic product of the region of Upper Palatinate has substantially increased between 2003 and 2008 by 21,6% up to 35.7000 Mio. €. In 2008, the specific gross domestic product per capita in the region of Upper Palatinate was 32.868 € which was produced by 560.000 employess. With about 350.000 employees in the service sector, it is with 62% the biggest economic sector. One third of the employees is working in the industry sector and with narrow 4 % the primary sector with agriculture and forestry is the smallest of the economic sectors. The regional economy is characterised by small and medium-sized enterprises. Some of them are counting to the marked leader worldwide, like BMW, Continental, Infineon and Toshiba Europe.

Land Use

As a rather rural are, the region of Upper Palatinate is characterised by a large share of farm and forest land. Including the area of water, the share of natural landscape is more than 85 %. Accordingly significant potentials for the use bioenergy exist. 

The energy balance for the region of Upper Palatinate can only be assessed on the basis of per-capita calculations considering the energy data of the energy balance of the Free State of Bavaria (reference year 2008). Based on this approach, the final energy consumption is still dominated by the use of fossil fuels.

Final energy consumption is distributed over these energies:

• Petroleum products: 47,8%
• Gases: 21,4%
• Electricity: 21,5%
• Renewable energy sources (without solar and wind energy): 4,5%
• District heating: 3,1%
• Coal: 1,2%
• Others 0,5%

There are potentials for for expanding different types of renewable energy sources, especially in wind and bioenergy.

Next to the consumption sector of households and other small consumers, the transport sector is having a large share in final energy consumption. This is specifically the case in the region of Upper Palatinate, which is thinly settled and having a significant share of commuters.

One part of regional sustainable energy action is to improve the data basis on the generation and use of energy. By a stepwise approach, data on regional energy consumption in the building and industrial sector will be refined. Based on the results of a regional energy balance, more detailed analyses will illustrate existing energy saving potentials and potentials for the expansion of renewable energy sources.

The regional activities for initiating sustainable energy projects will focus on:

• Energy-efficient buildings: carbon-neutral public buildings, schools, etc.
• Renewable energy: PV, wind power, biomass, etc.
• Energy Services and Financing: contracting, public-private co-investment schemes, etc.
• IE education: seminars on SEP financing, low-cost measures for improving energy efficiency

The replication activity that is to ensure a European dissemination of successful regional projects will focus on projects in industry and renewable energy. The Czech region Karlovarský kraj (Carlsbad) is a potential twinning partner with twinning options especially in renewable energy.

In the context of ENNEREG, one essential target is to develop a SEAP for Upper Palatinate, which will focus on specific sectors of energy generation and consumption. At the moment there are just some sustainable energy action plans and energy concepts for some districts and cities, but no regional concept for addressing the issues of energy efficiency and sustainable energy supply.

Taking into account the difficult data situation and availability regarding the use of energy sources at regional level, the SEAP for the Region of Upper Palatinate is to be realized in a stepwise approach:

1. Building sector: development of an energy and emissions baseline, differentiating between the residential and public buildings, assessment energy saving potentials via building refurbishment, building-related expansion potentials for use of renewable energy sources, recommendation of measures
2. Energy production: assessment of regional energy generation of non-grid-bound energy sources (heating oil, coal, wood) for buildings, rough estimation of energy generation in large power plants (obliged under EU ETS) and other installations, renewable energy generation
3. Industrial sector: development of an energy and emissions baseline, differentiating between existing industrial sectors

You can download intermediate results of the SEAP development from the resources section under presentations below ("ENNEREG - Regions 202020, Entwicklung eines regionalen Energienutzungsplans in der Oberpfalz", Dr. André Suck, 12. Mai 2011).

The City of Neumarkt was and still is the first municipality having signed the Covenant of Mayors in the Region of Upper Palatinate. Therefore the City of Neumarkt serves as a role model to other municipalities to engage in the CoM initiative. One main objective of ENNEREG is to inform and motivate other cities in the Region to participate in this initiative and follow the example of the City of Neumarkt. Moreover accession to the CoM will be promoted by informing municipalities about funding and financing options for developing their own SEAP.