Climate-friendly local power generation helps farmers in Nepal [DE]

Think global, act local! With a new climate-friendly contracting model, the Berlin Energy Agency (BEA) is continuing its successful energy efficiency partnership with the housing cooperative Bremer Höhe in a neighbourhood in Berlin’s Pankow district.

As there was no room in the basements of the listed Wilhelminian style residential buildings, three combined heat and power plants (CHP) based on natural gas were installed in attic heating centres in 2001. Since then, BEA has been delivering the power generated on the spot as so-called BEA Kiezstrom® (neighbourhood power) to the 480 households and shops in the buildings.

After a tender, the contract has now been renewed for another 15 years in 2018, consisting of two components with a special feature:

• CO2 reduction on site: thanks to state-of-the-art technology, the three new CHP units (plus peak load boilers) emit 233 tons less CO2 per year than the previous systems.
• CO2 reduction in Nepal: residual emissions are offset through the cooperation with “atmosfair”, a German non-profit organization supporting farmers in mountain villages in Nepal in switching from burning wood to self-powered small biogas plants. In these very simple plants, cow dung is mixed with water and fermented in a container to carbon-neutral biogas. The project is certified according to the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism.

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