Wildpoldsried in Germany - One Community’s Solution to the Climate Crisis

Could it be possible that the collective efforts of our individual communities could bring forward the solutions we need to solve the climate crisis? A small village in Germany has demonstrated to us that this is a real possibility, going beyond the point of energy efficient, and energy neutral, to the point of being clean energy contributing. How was this possible?

Wildpoldsried is a rural community that lays some 130km South West of Munich in the Oberallgau district of Bavaria. Until the turn of the millennia, before being famed for its sustainability credentials, it was a sleepy town with its population around 2,600 people mainly involved in or around the agricultural sector. Now adays its surpassed the point of being energy neutral, and actually produces nearly 500% of its own energy needs through a collection of microgeneration schemes and self-imposed energy efficiency measures. Its gone further still by examining the way the community used water and processed its effluent, changes have resulted in a bio-solution for its foul water which in turn creates high value composting material and has restored and enhanced bio-diversity in the wetlands that surround the town.

The town’s environmental journey can be traced back to 1999 when in response to the German Governments nationwide initiative called “Energie Wende”, the town’s citizens set up a committee which ultimately formed a goal for the town to aim to get 30% of its energy from renewables. It documented its aim and the roadmap to that objective in a document called “Wildpoldsried Innovation Leadership” which stated the aims of the town in respect of three major sustainability points; Renewable energy & saving energy, Ecological construction of buildings (what we would now called sustainability), and the Protection of Water & Water Resources & Ecological Disposal. It also set a deadline for the town to be reliant on 100% renewable energy by 2021.

Within half of that time, by 2011, the town was producing 321% of its energy needs and achieving an annual revenue of 5.1 million Euros from the sale of the surplus energy, arising from the following installations:

·       5,000 kWp of photovoltaics

·       5 bio-gas facilities

·       11 Wind turbines

·       1 Hydropower system

·       Several biomass heating systems

·       2,100m2 of solar thermal systems

·       Use of geothermal systems present in the region

·       Widespread adoption of passive haus (house) construction methods for new buildings

All of this could be traced to the formation of the town’s committee, effectively a “citizen’s assembly” which discussed and decided what the town as a collective wanted to achieve, stated its aims, and set out with determination to achieve them. Their first project was the procurement of two wind-turbines for the town at a cost (then) of 4.4m DM. The residents of the committee collected 25%  (1.1m DM) of the cost in raising shares in a new company, to hold shares you had to be a resident of the town and residents could invest between 5 and 25 thousand DM. The German government provided 5% (0.22m DM) while the 70% balance (3.08m DM) was obtained through borrowing. Since the scheme began operating, residents that had invested in that project and those that followed have seen a consistent return on their investment of between 8 and 10%. As a result, the initial two-turbine  3.5 MWh scheme has been replicated in 2001 with a two-turbine 4.5 MWh project and in 2008 with a single-turbine 4 MWh installation.

As well as delivering generous dividends for the shareholding residents, the scheme has created revenue to ambitious and generous social projects in the town such as a new school, a new gymnasium and a community hall, each of which were constructed to high sustainable standards and all included good volumes of micro-generation contributing to the town’s ability to meet and exceed its own energy needs.

These successes led the town to take on other challenges including tackling flooding and improving the way the town processed its effluent. Both of these challenges were later met through the development of a Natural Waste Water Treatment Plant which it constructed in a local wetlands area near the town known as WiWaLaMoor. Through the design and installation of a three stage processes installation (1. Sediment tank, 2. Filtration system using plants, 3. Clarifier) the entire towns foul waste is processed in a sustainable way which now produces some 20m3  of “humus”, a high value organic matter used in gardening and farming, which is used in the town for gardens and farming. The active management of the wetlands has reduced flooding in the town and improved the range of biodiversity in the wetlands as well as creating a honey bee garden and orchard for the community to enjoy.

Without a doubt, the resident of Wildpoldsried have created an exemplar model that can be replicated in other villages, towns and cities about the world. Nothing that this small town has cannot be recreated in another town or some alternative sort. Perhaps what Wildpoldsried has that other communities doesn’t is an active and well meaning committee or citizens assembly.