Sino-German Demonstration Project on Energy Efficiency in City Quarters

Background and objective

Cities, accounting for about 70% of the final energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, are crucial for a successful global energy transition. In Germany as well as in China, many cities, urban districts and industrial parks are striving to restructure their local energy supply system and achieve a sustainable development by increasing energy efficiency and making greater use of climate-neutral potentials.

Against this background, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH implements the demonstration project on energy saving in cities jointly with the German Energy Agency (dena) and the China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group (CECEP Consulting). The demonstration project is part of the Sino-German Energy Partnership between the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and the National Development and Reform Commission of the PR China (NDRC).

The overall aim of the project is to contribute to municipal climate protection by developing and implementing an integrated concept for the efficient and sustainable energy system of an urban district or an industrial park and to identify existing – and economically interesting – energy saving and greenhouse gas emission reduction potentials. Furthermore, the project aims at improving the market conditions for energy efficiency technologies and services for the realization of sustainable local energy systems, strengthening the private sector cooperation between Germany and China, and involving German companies in the implementation of energy efficiency measures.

Project approach

The demonstration project introduces German and international experiences and best practices on low-carbon integrated municipal energy planning, relevant technical standards, technologies and innovative business models to China. Both German and Chinese stakeholders from local authorities, industry and academia are involved in the pilot project. The project implementation mainly focuses on the following work streams:

• Technical advice and support for a selected pilot city quarter/industrial park on developing and implementing an integrated municipal energy concept and an energy efficiency concept for buildings;
• Capacity building for multiplicators in relevant organizations (train-the-trainer) to enable them to develop and implement trainings on municipal energy planning and energy efficiency in buildings;
• Providing a platform for German and Chinese private sector stakeholders and deepening the bilateral economic cooperation;
• Dissemination and communication of project results and experience to further Chinese cities and industry parks.

Project outputs (excerpt):

• Development of an integrated municipal energy concept for a city quarter or industry park;
• Development of concepts for energy-efficient building and refurbishment;
• The implementation of the concepts is initiated and German and Chinese companies, investors, project developers and operators are actively involved;
• Introduction of business models for building and operating sustainable local energy supply systems (electricity, heating, cooling) in China;
• Establishment of an energy network to strengthen the exchange between local companies and organizations on successful energy efficiency measures;
• Strengthening of competencies and capacities of relevant Chinese stakeholders regarding integrated energy and resource management and energy-efficient technologies.