Tag: – Works in Progress

Fiji

Fiji

  • Target: Achieve 100% renewable energy share in electricity generation by 2030.
  • Status: In progress
  • RES: Hydropower, biomass, solar, windpower, coconut oil has been used as an alternative to diesel fuel in some rural area projects, and pilot projects using biogas are under development. Some evidence of geothermal resources.
  • Implementation: Fiji promotes renewable energy through its Rural Electrification Policy (1993), the National Energy Policy (2006) and the ratification of the IRENA Statute (2010). The National Energy Policy focuses on four key strategic areas: national energy planning, energy security, power sector, and renewable energy development. Its national government encourages the development of renewable energy through a number of policies, fiscal incentives, subsidies and loans. Fiji is seeking strong participation of the private sector, important since the emerging industries such as manufacturing, mining and construction are also very energy-intensive. The government has identified challenges to develop and commercialize RE technologies in Fiji: commercial viability, financial feasibility and appropriate service fees.
  • Population: 884,887 (2017)
  • Area: 18,274 km2 (7,056 sq mi)
  • Link: http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/05/24/fiji-growing-a-renewable-energy-industry-while-expanding-electricity-access
Fiji

FortZED, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

The Oval, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

  • Target: Net Zero Energy District
  • Status: In progress
  • RES: Solar PV, biogas, storage technologies such as fuel cells, and smart meters.
  • Implementation: Fort Collins, Colorado is a municipality located approximately 57 miles north of the state's capitol city of Denver. In 2007, the UniverCity Connections Sustainable Energy Task Force, an initiative of the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado, proposed the development of a "Net Zero Energy District". It would be a district within the municipality that would be a model for generating as much electricity as is consumed with renewable sources, combined with conservation, efficiency, and smart grid technologies. Named FortZED, the new district would cover an area of approximately 2 square miles and include the main campus of Colorado State University and downtown businesses and homes. Although completed in 2014, FortZED already showcased a demonstration project by 2011, a which showed that five businesses in the district could collectively reduce peak-load demand on a micro-grid by more than 20 percent during test periods over more than four weeks. The project combined a range of energy solutions, including efficiency, smart meters, demand response, solar PV, biogas, and storage technologies such as fuel cells. Natural gas was used as back up generation. The project also featured electric vehicle charging stations at city offices, and EV car batteries were considered for backup energy during peak-demand periods. This demonstration project was part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Renewable Distributed Systems Integration program.

    FortZED is led by a collaborative team of three entities: Fort Collins Utilities, UniverCity Connections, and the Colorado Clean Energy Cluster, a local economic development organization. Funding sources have included a U.S. Department of Energy grant for $6.3 million, plus nearly $5 million in matching funds and in kind services, along with a $778,000 New Energy Communities grant from Colorado’s Department of Local Affairs and the Colorado Governor’s Energy Office, and $2 million in local matching funds.

    Today, FortZED represents about 10 -15% of Fort Collins Utility’s electric distribution system and serves approximately 7,200 residential and commercial electric utility customers.
  • Population: 164,207 (2016)
  • Area: 57.05 sq mi (147.77 km2)
  • Link: https://www.fcgov.com/fortzed/
The Oval, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Frankfurt, Germany

  • Target: 100% renewable energy
  • Status: In progress
  • RES: Combined heat and power (CHP), solar thermal and PV, wind power, and the use of local organic wastes for both heating and power generation.
  • Implementation: The city of Frankfurt is a global financial hub and has positioned itself as a leader in sustainability and climate protection for several decades. In 1985, it founded one of the first municipal energy and climate protection agencies, which has worked extensively on promoting energy efficiency in local buildings and the adoption of combined heat and power systems. In 2008, the Frankfurt City Council agreed to implement a list of fifty energy saving and climate protection measures. The current Master Plan includes a dynamic array of projects and initiatives designed both to reduce emissions and to increase the adoption of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Between 1990 and 2012, the City managed to reduce its emissions by 15% while the economy grew by over 50%.
    Frankfurt implements projects by combining a top-down and bottom-up strategy, involving local citizens and businesses. The city benefits from a highly educated workforce, and a citizenry that broadly supports climate action and the continued expansion of energy efficiency and renewable energy. In addition, both the federal and state-level governments have provided funds to help support Frankfurt’s 100% strategy. The city aims to increase awareness within local schools through a wide range of onsite projects in schools across the city. The City’s Energy Agency is in the process of elaborating on its Master Plan, a strategy whose implementation will involve architects, engineers, consultants, local businesses, public buildings such as schools and hospitals, as well as local residents.
    Due to the fact that Frankfurt is a relatively dense urban area, city representatives and local experts determined Frankfurt would need to rely on neighbouring communities and the surrounding rural area in order to reach the target of supplying 100 % the cities total energy needs from renewable energy sources. The current Master Plan envisions that approximately 25% will be supplied from energy generated within the City, 25% from outside the City, and total energy consumption will be decreased by 50%. Key elements of the strategy include increasing energy efficiency by 50 %, expanding combined heat and power (CHP) and increasing the role of solar (both thermal and PV), wind, and the use of local organic wastes for both heating and power generation. In addition, there are a number of pilots underway, including the initiative to develop a Virtual Power Plant (VPP), which would be designed to integrate several small generators into an interconnected network capable of adjusting to fluctuations in RE output.
  • Population: 746,878 (2017) city, 5,604,523 (2017) metro
  • Area: 248.31 km2 (95.87 sq mi)
  • Link: Renewing Frankfurt’s energy
Frankfurt, Germany

Frederikshavn, Denmark

Frederikshavn, Denmark

  • Target: 100% renewable energy by 2030
  • Status: In progress
  • RES: Wind farm, thermal solar collectors, heated water storage, heat pump systems, geothermal energy, and district heating.
  • Implementation: Frederikshavn is a town located in Northern Denmark. In November 2006, a group of Danish energy experts came together for a project called "Energy Camp 06" and  identified Frederikshavn as the ideal location for a model "Energy City," which would shift to 100% renewable sources for electricity, transportation, and heating by 2015. Frederikshavn was chosen because it was a good size for the testing of energy technologies, there were already existing electricity and heating production plants as well as a wind farm research facility, and there was political will to carry out ambitious plans.
    In February 2007, the Frederikshavn City Council approved the Energy City plan, which would be completed over 3 phases. First, it would reach a 40% renewable energy target by 2009. Second, its renewable energy share would annually increase to reach 100% by 2015, with the capacity to exchange energy with surrounding areas. Third, the 100% renewable energy system would be further developed to enable Denmark as a whole to transform to 100% renewable energy by 2030.
    The first phase involved implementing 4 projects, offshore wind  project with a total capacity of 25 MW, 8000 m2 of thermal solar collectors that annually generate about 4 GWh with 1500 cubic meters of water heat storage and an absorption heat pump at the existing CHP plant, a facility that upgrades biogas from a local plant to natural gas quality that fuels cars and is used in the existing cogeneration plants, and finally a heat pump system at the town's waste water treatment plant that extracts 4 GWh of heat from the waste water and produce 6 GWh of heat for the district heating supply. To reach a 100% renewable energy supply by 2015, a waste incineration CHP plant was built. This project prioritises recycling before incineration, the remaining relatively small amount of waste is used to create heat and power via CHP technology. The heating grid was also expanded. Biomass boilers met industry heat demand, while homes not on the district heating grid are  retrofitted to use a combination of solar thermal and electric heat pumps. Then was the shift to electric, plug-in hybrid, and biogas in transportation. A  biogas plant was then built  for electricity, heat, and transportation fuel, using34 million tons of manure per year to produce biogas for the production of methanol, which can be used for district heating. Geothermal energy combined with heat pumps is added to the district heating supply. The rest of the city's energy demand is met by a 15 MW biogas CHP plant and  a 40 MW wind farm.
  • Population: 23,423 (2018)
  • Area: 651.04 km2 (251.37 sq mi)
  • Link: https://stateofgreen.com/en/partners/energy-city-frederikshavn/solutions/master-plan-for-renewable-energy-2030/
Frederikshavn, Denmark

Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

  • Target: Freiburg Green City, using 100% renewable energy by 2050.
  • Status: In progress
  • RES: Net-zero and passivhaus building practices, combined heat and power (CHP) generation, solar thermal and photovoltaics systems, and a district heating grid to provide domestic heating and hot water.
  • Implementation: Freiburg is located in south-west Germany, near the borders with France and Switzerland. It is home to universities, public research institutions and has one of Germany’s sunniest and warmest climates. The city has a population with a large proportion of whom are Green Party voters. Since the 1972 Anti-nuclear protests, citizens have pursued sustainable energy standards often above and beyond those set by the German federal government. In 2003, citizen groups began preparing a plan for the municipal council, which eventually became the backbone of Freiburg’s Land Use 2020 plan. The plan brought together community shareholders and civic officials. The focus would be threefold: energy savings, efficient technologies, and renewable energy sources. Action plans were detailed in relation to transportation, waste, water and energy sectors. Today, the Freiburg Environmental Policy provides short, mid and long-term goals for planning, development, and conservation for sustainability and efficiency.  These aspects govern Freiburg’s urban planning process in such a way that most development, or re-development, projects go far beyond the minimum energy standards and installation of renewable energy generation to also include net-zero and passivhaus building practices, combined heat and power (CHP) generation and a district heating grid to provide domestic heating and hot water.
  • Population: 229,636 (2017)
  • Area: 153.07 km2(59.10 sq mi)
  • Link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/mar/23/freiburg.germany.greenest.city
Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

Freisingerland, Germany

Mariendom, Freising, Germany

  • Target: 100% renewable electricity target by 2035
  • Status: In progress
  • RES: Solar energy
  • Implementation: In 2005, 24 municipalities in the district of Freising, north of Munich, Germany decided to create the “Solar Region Freisingerland” with the target of 100% renewable electricity target by 2035. The idea was implemented together with many associations and organizations from the district. By establishing a cooperation agreement between "Sonnenkraft-Freising" as initiator and "Freisinger Land" (the regional marketing initiative at the time) as partner, the idea was able to be launched effectively. Though this initiative, the “Solar-Kreisliga” competition involving the municipalities was set up to stimulate the shift to renewable energy in the region. Towns would compete to attain the highest renewable energy generation compared with their recorded electricity consumption.By 2010, 6 municipalities had reached their 100% renewables electricity goal and were named energy champions. At this time, the region was already producing 54.6% electricity from renewables. The results were promoted via regular energy brochures and today, latest results are distributed to all political leaders in the district. Recently the "Bürgeringerergiegenossenschaft Freisinger Land" was established as a county-wide institution to assist citizens to better transition to renewable energy. It is estimated that if recent activities in renewable energy continue, the solar region could reach their goal of 100% renewables electricity by 2020. 
  • Population: 164,692 (2007)
  • Link: Solarregion Freisinger Land
Mariendom, Freising, Germany

Fukushima, Japan

Fukushima, Japan

  • Target: Cover a minimum of 100% of primary energy demand with renewable resources by 2040
  • Status: In progress
  • RES: Windpower, solar thermal heating, photovoltaics, biomass for power and heating, geothermal energy, and hydropower.
  • Implementation: The prefecture of Fukushima is located in the Tōhoku region on the east coast of Japan on the island of Honshu. The Great East Japan earthquake and subsequent tsunami and disaster at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011 motivated the people of Fukushima to re-examine their energy system and ways of restoring industry in the shattered region. This led to the vision of transitioning to renewable energy as a way forward. Fukushima now has officially committed to cover a minimum of 100% of primary energy demand in Fukushima with renewable resources by 2040. Part of this plan involves taking advantage of strong offshore wind by building a large floating wind farm off the coast of Fukushima. The total cost of the farm is estimated to be  ¥18.8 billion (approx. $189 million USD). Still, the first 2 MW turbine was delivered in 2013. In 2015, Phase 2 was completed, bringing online two 7 MW wind turbines.

    By 2020, the goal is to have 143 large wind turbines totalling 1 GW in capacity 10 miles off the Fukushima coast. The massive size of turbines will call for them to be locally constructed, which means local jobs in manufacturing and maintenance. With its existing automotive and airplane industries, useful components to the wind turbine industry will be available. The Fukushima plan also envisions other technologies and resources, including solar thermal heating, photovoltaics, biomass for power and heating, geothermal energy, and hydropower. Fukushima Prefecture has held several educational and industry events to attract support for its renewable energy plan.
  • Population: 1,877,876 (2018)
  • Area: 13,782.76 km2 (5,321.55 sq mi)
  • Link: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/03/11/national/fukushima-powers-toward-100-goal-renewables-grid-cost-woes-linger/#.XHP93C2ZOIY
Fukushima, Japan

Gothenburg, Sweden

Gothenburg, Sweden

  • Target: Fossil free by 2050
  • Status: In progress
  • RES: District heating, solar and wind power
  • Implementation: In the early 1990’s, Sweden shifted from oil to district heating. This helped to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in the housing and service sectors. Today, over 80 per cent of the heat and hot water provided to the country's apartment blocks come from district heating. By heating and cooling buildings from a central plant source, more sustainable and clean forms of fuel can be used. Many district heating networks are making use of recycled heat from industries – energy that would be wasted.

    Gothenburg is Sweden’s second-largest city. It has a 1,200 kilometres long district heating network, which heats 90 per cent of the city’s apartment blocks as well as 12,000 detached homes. Today, over 80% of the heat in the system is based on waste heat and recycled energy. When municipal-owned Gårdstensbostäder acquired Gårdsten in the late 90s, they managed to redevelop 500 apartments into solar houses. The apartments are also self- sufficient by wind power. The city has also enabled through its electric utilities policies, the option for consumers to buy into the eco-labeled district heating.
  • Population: 572,779 city, 1,015,974 metro (2016)
  • Area: 447.76 km2 (172.88 sq mi) city, 3,694.86 km2(1,426.59 sq mi) metro
  • Link: Fossil Free Gothenburg (PDF in Swedish)
Gothenburg, Sweden

Gotland, Sweden

Gotland, Sweden

  • Target: Climate-neutral energy supply by 2025
  • Status: In progress
  • RES: Wind power
  • Implementation: The Swedish Island of Gotland is committed to having a climate-neutral energy supply by 2025. The objective is to use 100% local, renewable resources to meet all of the energy demand for households and business on Gotland, except for industrial fuels. Gotland has implemented an array of innovative renewable energy projects.  This is largely due to it having the highest sunlight strength in Sweden, is one of the top wind locations in Europe, and has good access to biofuels. The municipality's sustainability initiative already began in the early 1990s, with the aim of creating a sustainable society by 2025. This would not only apply for the energy sector, but also for all resources, agriculture, and waste. Since then, the municipality has already cut its CO2 emissions from fossil fuels nearly in half.  A quarter to half of the entire island's annual electricity demand is met with wind power, and heating is produced with biofuels from local forests. In 2010, Gotland installed its first biogas station for fueling cars and buses, which today totals four stations. In 2017, the first public filling station for HVO was opened. There are also several loading stations for electric vehicles across the island. Wind power development has since grown but existing sea cables have been found to be limited in capacity. The Swedish Government's National Energy Agency is conducting a feasibility study on Gotland as a pilot case for a renewable energy system smart grid to address this challenge.
  • Population: 58,595 (2017)
  • Area: 3,183.7 km2 (1,229.2 sq mi)
  • Link: Island of Gotland is Home to Sustainable Energy System Pilot Project
Gotland, Sweden

Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

Calder Plaza, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

  • Target: To become a fossil fuel free city, at least in the electricity sector, by 2020.
  • Status: In progress
  • RES: Solar photovoltaic systems, and geothermal systems.
  • Implementation: Grand Rapids is one of the most populous cities in the US state of Michigan.  In 2010, the electricity production was mostly based on coal burning power plants and about 20% came from renewable energies. To achieve the 100%-RE target in the electricity sector, as announced by the mayor in 2005, Grand Rapids has implemented several RE projects. In 2010, the US Department of Energy awarded the city a ‘Congressially Directed Project Grand’. The city has since received financial support to implement photovoltaic systems. It has installed geothermal systems at two fire stations in the city. The US Environmental Protection Agency has also provided financial support to convert a former landfill site into a large scale solar photovoltaic farm.
  • Population: 198,829 (2017)
  • Area: 45.31 sq mi (117.35 km2)
  • Link: https://www.experiencegr.com/about-grand-rapids/green-grand-rapids/
Calder Plaza, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
  • Calder Plaza, Grand Rapids © Steven Depolo CC BY 2.0