Energy Caravan
The Energy Caravan is a different kind of energy consultation: direct and on-site, planned and carried out by municipalities, including free initial consultation by neutral and qualified energy consultants covering neighbourhood by neighbourhood resulting in homeowners being educated about energy efficient renovations.
Overview of the project
With the Energy Caravan, municipalities have an attractive offer at hand to motivate the target group of homeowners, which has been difficult to reach up to now, to modernise their homes. In addition, the underlying mechanism can be adapted to suit a particular issue, for example the promotion of PV installations on or adaptation measures for private homes. Thanks to the neighbourhood approach, the Energy Caravan is just as suitable for municipalities with less than 3,000 inhabitants as for big cities. The related reduction of CO2 emissions makes municipalities key players in the fight against climate change. The implementation of the campaign follows a standardised procedure. All steps in the process are based on customisable templates. Climate Alliance and its cooperation partner provide knowledge transfer and then accompany the municipalities throughout the project phases. This enables them to carry out the campaign independently in the future. After municipal capacity has been built up and based on the successes in the first neighbourhoods, municipalities continue carrying out their campaigns, e.g. major cities like Freiburg and Kassel as well as smaller municipalities like Emmendingen and Murg.
The Energy Caravan empowers municipalities to encourage citizens to carry out energy retrofits.
implementation
project still in progress
The Energy Caravan has been carried out in more than 100 municipalities of all sizes in Germany, often covering several neighbourhoods per municipalities. The approach leads to in increase of the renovation rate of up to 15% on a neighbourhood basis compared to the German average of 1%. A minimum of 12,000 energy consultancies for households took place in those 100+ municipalites resulting in energy retrofits of at least 7,000 privately owned buildings. On average, the individual retrofits cut energy consumption as well as greenhouse gas emissions in half.
The two non-profit associations fesa e.V. and Climate Alliance cooperate to disseminate knowledge and competences for the implementation of the Energy Caravan. Since 2017, fesa e.V. has been responsible for the Energy Caravan in the Baden region (Germany). Together, the two organisations make this successful campaign available to municipalities throughout Europe. The partner organisations provide the missing link between theory and concrete municipal climate action. Employing the mechanism enabled municipalities to address the passive part of the target group. Thereby, municipalities provide a service for their citizens, contribute to mitigation efforts and provide climate action.
The Energy Caravan was developed for nationwide application for municipalities as a reference project of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment. After the successful conclusion of the project, municipalities started to fund the campaign themselves.
organisation
For over 30 years, Climate Alliance member municipalities have been acting in partnership with indigenous rainforest peoples for the benefit of the global climate. With more than 1,900 members spread across 27 European countries, Climate Alliance is Europe’s largest city network dedicated to comprehensive and equitable climate action. Each member city, town and district has committed itself to continually cut greenhouse gas emissions, aiming for a 95% reduction by 2050 (compared to 1990 levels) in line with IPCC recommendations. Recognising the impact our lifestyles can have on the world’s most vulnerable people and places, Climate Alliance pairs local action with global responsibility.
in collaboration
