map of the smart city living lab oldenburg

© Stadt Oldenburg

The planning of Oldenburg’s new climate-neutral district began in January 2018. This is one of the six flagship projects in the field of research, development and demonstration selected by the BMWi and the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under a federal initiative called Solar Construction/Energy-Efficient City. The aim of the initiative is to promote projects that contribute to a forward-looking, climate-friendly and energy-efficient design of energy supply for urban districts.

The Energetische Nachbarschaftsquartier (Energy-efficient Neighbourhood) in Oldenburg is to be built on the former air base in the north-west of the city. It will supply 110 residential units with climate-neutral, locally produced energy in the future. What is planned is the intelligent and energy-efficient coupling of electricity, heating, cooling and mobility in a smart grid which balances energy production and consumption in a sensible and energy-efficient manner. The Institute of Networked Energy Systems (Institut für Vernetzte Energiesysteme) of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) is responsible for the overall energy concept.

In collaboration with 20 other research and industry partners, the institute has an opportunity over the coming years to test trendsetting technologies for the city of the future under real conditions. A decisive role is to be assigned to the future residents in this context. They are to form local energy cooperatives which are linked as producers and consumers via a joint portal. The idea is to test this supply grid for two years in conjunction with the integrated incentive models and to subsequently transfer it to other north German neighbourhoods.