Green City Freiburg

Green City Freiburg: Ecology Meets Economy - Seminar

The city of Freiburg is internationally renowned for its innovations in renewable energy and strides in environmental sciences. In 1973, construction of a nuclear power plant in Whyl, approximately 30 km from Freiburg, was met with widespread protests throughout the Schwarzwald region. Four years later, the project abruptly ended. In 1986, following the nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl, a nearby village called Schönau decided to take action, first by consciously reducing their energy consumption, 20% of which was nuclear energy at the time. They then urged their power provider to charge more for higher power usage, in order to encourage conscious energy saving. However, the market for energy was oligopolized (think oligarchy + monopoly) and entirely dependent on gas, oil and nuclear energy, meaning there were no environmentally friendly options.

The village of Schönau then decided to supply their own energy. However, this entailed various legal, financial and technical problems, and they were still dependent on gas, oil and nuclear energy. After the city's bold actions, scientists, technicians, lawyers, etc. from all over the country willing came to contribute to the Schönauer Project, without any pay or compensation. They were able to reduce energy consumption significantly and were able to spread a green mentality throughout Baden-Württemberg.

However, reducing energy consumption is simply not enough and is certainly not a long-term solution. With the prognosis that gas and oil resources may be nearly depleted by 2050, research in renewable energy is essential. Freiburg is the world's leading innovator in solar energy and is home to the world's only soccer field that runs primarily on solar energy. Rolf Disch also created the first PlusEnergy house, the heliotrope, which generates nearly five times as much energy than it expends. The house slowly rotates in order to optimize its solar energy production.

It's important to realize that Freiburg has a nice blend of circumstances, which makes all of this possible: It is the sunniest city in Germany resting in the middle of the a dense forest with sufficient wind, lending itself well to renewable energy; it is a compact city, enabling easy transport by foot, bike or tram; it is a fairly wealthy city - and therefore the most expensive city in Germany, after income is accounted for - and can afford to spend large amount of money in environmental research, smart technologies and eco-friendly products and services; it is a college city, housing innovators, researchers and leaders; and it is by no means an industrial city, making its ecological footprint tremendously smaller.

Freiburg is an example for the rest of the world. But we first need to understand, how we can make it work in other cities, where the circumstances may not lend themselves as well to this goal.