At midnight on December 31, 2029 in Unterhaching, not only will a new decade begin, but the future: Photovoltaics will then be installed on all roofs and solar panels will be on the fields, under which sheep will graze or lettuce will be grown. Three windmills will turn in the Perlacher Forest and for four years the whole of Unterhaching has been a car-free zone. Trucks deliver their goods to the micro-hub on the outskirts of town, from where they are transported to their destination in electric microvans and cargo bikes. Unterhaching wants to be climate-neutral by 2030.
This is what it could look like, the emission-free municipality, the first “net-zero municipality” in the district of Munich, which has implemented all conceivable measures for climate protection and has achieved its goal as defined by the Federal Environment Agency. It states: “Climate neutrality is the state at which human activities have no net effect on the climate system as a result.”
But isn’t that too ambitious? Are the citizens involved at all? And doesn’t that cost far too much money in economically difficult times? According to a municipal council decision taken at the end of 2021, Unterhaching wants to be ten years faster than the district, which has set a target of 2040, and also faster than Neuried and Neubiberg, which give themselves until 2035. Only Pullach started the race against climate change at the same time and also wants to be climate-neutral by 2030 – and even completely free of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
“My generation screwed it up,” said the 62-year-old science journalist Harald Lesch recently at an event in Unterhaching on climate protection.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
The energy transition is a marathon and Unterhaching has prescribed a sprint pace, knowing full well that this is very sporty. The council agrees that time is of the essence. Therefore, a year and a half ago, the committee voted unanimously for a motion by the CSU to speed things up. The fact that the community is on the right track was recently attested by the astrophysicist and science journalist Harald Lesch at an event to mark the 20th anniversary of Unterhaching’s geothermal energy: “This is how climate change works,” said Lesch, referring to the geothermal energy that Unterhaching has been tapping into for 20 years. The prominent guest speaker spoke of the “real boom”. But he also came as a warning: “You don’t need a physics degree to understand what happens when it gets warmer and warmer. Many didn’t hear the blow. We screwed it up, my generation screwed it up,” said the 62-year-old year olds. At the very least, his generation needs to change direction so that the next generation can do the right thing.
But what are the options? For Lesch, the cities and municipalities play a major role: “The municipalities are a small geographical area in which you can show that it’s possible.” The municipalities are “social laboratories”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/landkreismuenchen/.”If you want to know how the energy transition works, then go to Unterhaching or Wildpoldsried.” The success here is much more immediate and the psychological effect much faster.
In order to achieve the goal of climate neutrality by 2030, efforts must be increased tenfold, according to Unterhaching’s climate protection officer, Philipp Dürr.
(Photo: Municipality of Unterhaching)
Unterhaching is already doing quite well with its geothermal energy. In addition, there is Bürgerenergie, a cooperative founded in 2012, which now operates two of its own open-space photovoltaic systems, 15 roof systems and one PV system on a commercial property. But that’s not enough. The new climate protection manager of the municipality, Philipp Dürr, made it clear in a status report in June 2022 in the municipal council: between 2010 and 2016, greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by one percent annually, and are currently at almost three percent. If you want to achieve climate neutrality by 2030, you have to increase the annual reduction tenfold. A sobering diagnosis.
The municipality now excludes traffic from its definition of climate neutrality. Because the municipality does not know the travel behavior of its citizens and also has no influence on who is traveling with which vehicle, for example on the Giesinger (A 995) or the Salzburg autobahn (A 8), which virtually enclose the town to the west and east.
So how can you become ten times better than before when it comes to reducing CO₂ and expanding renewable energies? Just see how others do it, the Greens’ climate working group thought and organized a visit to Pfaffenhofen in October, which is considered a model municipality when it comes to climate protection and wants to become climate-neutral by 2035 with a catalog of 39 comprehensive measures. Gabi Scheithauer, the organizer of the information trip, took a few things with him from the district town on the Ilm that Unterhaching could learn from. There is a free city bus, an online citizen reporter for criticism and suggestions and a youth parliament that has declared a climate emergency.
Hydrogen could be generated from excess wind and solar power
“The citizens are consistently taken along,” is Scheithauer’s experience. There are citizen workshops, a climate protection alliance, a climate protection day and a climate protection prize. The Pfaffenhofeners also operate a wind turbine. It was built “after a lot of communication and constructive discussions” and a referendum. “Here we learned something about power-to-gas: With excess wind and solar power, Pfaffenhofen generates hydrogen, which is then converted to methane with CO₂. The CO₂ and the heat from the sewage treatment plant generate methane biologically using algae. The electricity and gas networks are largely in the hands of the citizens,” reports Scheithauer.
So can Unterhaching learn from Pfaffenhofen? Citizen workshops already exist. 80 people from Unterhaching have taken part so far, and 144 suggestions were developed in three meetings. On Tuesday, January 24, experts from an external office are to attend a fourth event in order to put together a final package of measures. This also includes such unusual ideas as the small “Micro-Hub” logistics center and voluntary “energy scouts” who can answer energy-related questions simply and easily at the garden fence.
Geothermal expansion, solar energy, wind turbines – all of this has long been discussed in the municipal council, some things have been decided, others have been discarded. There is a lack of space for more open-space photovoltaics, in any case it is difficult – regardless of whether it is community energy or community – to convince landowners to set up panels on their fields and plant vegetables under the modules or let sheep graze instead of growing corn. The Hachinger Tal landscape park is taboo and it will be a while before the first windmill turns in Perlacher Forst.
Double yield: With a photovoltaic system on a meadow that is also used as sheep pasture, Bürgerenergie Unterhaching shows how regenerative energies and agriculture can be combined.
(Photo: Sebastian Gabriel)
However, there is now a master plan for geothermal energy, also because interest in becoming independent of fossil energy has increased massively since the war in Ukraine. Last May, Mayor Wolfgang Panzer (SPD) and the managing director of the community-owned geothermal company (GTU), Wolfgang Geisinger, announced: By 2027, the district heating network of the community, which is fed with geothermal energy, should be completely expanded and anyone interested should be connected to deep heat be guaranteed. It is said to cost 70 million euros – money that the GTU wants to raise through loans and federal funding measures. However, the municipality must vouch.
And she’s short on cash at the moment. Because she has to pay back twelve million euros in trade tax revenue to two companies, Mayor Panzer issued a budget freeze in the fall. In the current budget deliberations, all funding measures are under scrutiny. In the meantime, the municipal council has approved the fact that an external office will evaluate the measures from the citizens’ workshops. The committee does not want to economize on this, but rather to continue the process as originally planned. “From the point of view of the administration, this is absolutely necessary and cannot be afforded internally,” spokesman for the town hall and business developer Simon Hötzl campaigned for approval.
However, there is still a question mark over the energy-saving funding program. This has been around for 30 years and is basically the municipality’s oldest climate protection measure. The program was revised in 2020, and since then the number of applications has risen sharply. In 2022, more than 250 applicants applied for grants for a total of 468 measures with a total investment volume of five million euros. The promised grants amount to 400,000 euros. Now the municipality is wondering what will happen to applications that were made after the budget freeze was passed in October. Can you still afford to approve another 55,000 euros in funding for 2022? And is there enough money to give citizens financial support with such measures in 2023 in order to get a little closer to the goal of climate neutrality by 2030? More than in previous years, it is about setting priorities.