The German government has agreed funding for a project led by Innogy called SmartQuart that aims to reduce the use of fossil fuels in three neighbourhoods in Germany.
Three city quarters in the project areas in Essen and Bedburg in North Rhine-Westphalia and Kaisersesch in Rhineland-Palatinate are networked together to deliver sustainable electricity, heating and mobility.
By linking the areas each will complement the other sustainably and economically and exchange energy, Innogy said.
Local citizens in the neighbourhoods are also involved in the project, it added.
SmartQuart project manager at Innogy Philipp Werdelmann said the central project element is the exchange of energy and intelligent networking within and between the neighbourhoods.
“In this way, a holistic, sustainable and scalable neighbourhood concept for a renewable energy and heat supply is to be demonstrated,” he said.
In Bedburg a local district energy system will be set up using energy generated wind turbine, new solar plants and central and decentralized heat pumps.
A hydrogen-based microgrid is to be set up in the rural community of Kaisersesch, while solar will be used to power a district in Essen that will also include charging stations for cars.
Innogy is investing €19m in the scheme.
German minister of economic affairs Peter Altmaier said: “I am pleased that SmartQuart, the first real laboratory for the energy transition, is now starting work.
“Our real laboratories for the energy transition are innovation projects on an industrial scale.
“We develop and test technologies that we need for our ambitious energy and climate policy goals and test them in the real laboratories of the energy transition under real conditions and on an industrial scale.
“SmartQuart shows an example of how the energy transition can be transferred from the electricity sector to other sectors.”
Innogy head of new technologies Andreas Breuer said: “I am pleased that with SmartQuart we can be the first ‘real laboratory for the energy transition’.
“Innogy is working intensively on actively shaping the energy transition and making a contribution to achieving the climate goals set by the Federal Government. We are now continuing this path with our ‘SmartQuart’ project.
“We want to show that the step towards a climate-neutral energy supply within a district and in cooperation with neighbouring quarters is already technically and economically possible today.”
In addition to Innogy, the other project partners are GridX, Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies, OFB Projektentwicklung, RWTH Aachen University, City of Essen, City of Bedburg, Verbandsgemeinde Kaisersesch and Viessmann Werke.
Associated partners are RWE Power, Siemens and H2 Mobility Deutschland.