Pilot for heat transition and new social housing construction
Sustainable new build in Hamburg: pilot project combines social housing with tenant electricity and heat pumps
11.04.2025
Source: E & M powernews
In Hamburg, the energy cooperative Green Planet Energy has launched a pilot project for sustainable social housing - with tenant electricity and heat pumps.
A total of 107 residential units for 370 people in Hamburg are to benefit from low-cost tenant electricity and heat generated from renewable sources. To this end, the energy cooperative Green Planet Energy and the municipal company Fördern & Wohnen (F&W) have equipped a neighborhood in the Bahrenfeld district with a 160 kW photovoltaic system and four air-to-water heat pumps. If the electricity from its own roof is not sufficient, the demand is covered by green electricity purchased by the cooperative. This meets "Greenpeace criteria", according to a press release.
"As a cooperative, we have been committed to a socially just energy transition for more than 25 years. Our project in Hamburg-Bahrenfeld shows how it can be done," explains Nils Müller, Co-CEO of Green Planet Energy. Initially, the new quarter will serve as housing for families seeking protection with a refugee background and homeless people, according to a statement from the cooperative. The cooperative was founded by Greenpeace in 1999 and now has 45,000 members, according to its own information. It operates wind and solar parks as well as electrolysers for the production of green hydrogen as "wind gas", which supply a total of 200,000 households and business customers.
A model has now been established in Hamburg that those responsible believe should serve as a role model. "This is the first time we have combined serial construction with an innovative energy concept," explains Andreas Tjaden, Commercial Director of F&W.
Green Planet Energy and Fördern & Wohnen have agreed to jointly implement further such projects in apartment buildings. "With our cooperation, we are opening a new chapter in the energy transition in Hamburg," explains Nils Müller. He explicitly emphasizes self-generation in neighbourhoods as a special design element of the local energy transition.
Author: Fritz Wilhelm
