District Council Ahrweiler relies on climate protection: Innovative projects for the future!

The Ahrweiler district council decided in its latest session four measures from the integrated climate protection concept, which burden the district budget with a total of 15,000 euros. The focus is on promoting photovoltaic projects on agricultural areas, also known as Agri Fotovoltaik, as well as the establishment of a virtual power plant. The alternative for Germany (AfD) voted against the measures because it critically evaluates the "current financial situation".

of originally twelve decided measures from March 2023, three cannot be implemented. The “municipal heat planning” was deleted because counties were excluded from the application. The implementation of the "Alternative Drives in public transport" measure takes place taking into account legal and economic aspects. In addition, "use of server space" was classified as not implementable. With the three new measures, the district can now pass into the implementation phase.

goals and funding opportunities

The objective of the district of Ahrweiler is to cover the electricity requirement from renewable energies by 2030, whereby only about 15 percent of the needs are currently being covered from such sources. The simultaneous implementation of agri photo and the virtual power plant is to be strengthened. One of the measures also focuses on further training opportunities and advertising for sustainable professional fields in order to counteract the shortage of skilled workers in the solar industry.

The integration of climate protection criteria into the award regulations and the scalability of three of the four measures ensure that the financial commitment of the district remains clear. No funding programs of the federal or the state of Rhineland-Palatinate are currently available. However, there could be special funding from the Ministry of the Environment for the virtual power plant if there is at least 90 percent. The advanced training measure could be implemented in cooperation with the craft or by sponsorship of the “Future Kreis Ahrweiler” foundation.

In a further context, Robert Habeck emphasized the need to tripled the annual addition of solar performance in Germany until 2026 in order to achieve climate neutrality. He pointed out that in addition to roofs, unused areas for photovoltaic systems must also be used. The use of Agri Fotovoltaik is particularly important in order to optimize areas for both agricultural and solar genetic use, such as bundes- Government.de