Innovation Europe > News > Innovation blog > Munich - the first million strong city to be powered by green electricity

During our electric drive around Europe we passed through Munich. I took the opportunity to interview Dr. Florian Bieberbach, CEO of Stadtwerke Munchen (SWM), the publicly owned company that provides Munich with its power, transport, water-supply, internet infrastructure and even swimming pools!

SWM has made the public commitment to be the first major German city to provide all its power from renewable sources (by 2025). At the present Munich is powered by a mixture of Gas, Coal and Nuclear generated electricity, fully dependent on what the local grid offers.

As Munich is positioned in south Germany it does not have ready access to wind, sun or hydro-electric power so SWM has decided to invest in new generating capacity in other parts of Europe.

SWM will invest over €9bn in onshore and offshore wind turbines, geothermal and biomass projects, as well as solar and hydroelectric plants. SWM is taking large shares in new concentrated solar plants in Spain which will start to provide power during 2011, and in offshore wind farms off north Wales which will deliver power a few years later (see map).

Ironically, it is easier for German companies to invest in off-shore wind around the UK than in Germany because the German government has stipulated that offshore turbines are out of sight from the land. This means building turbines in deep water, increasing construction costs. The distance from land also increases maintenance costs. 

But SWM wil not only organise the production of new sources of energy, it also has plans to reduce the energy used within the city. The integrated transport system of U-bahn (underground), trams and buses already means that the average Munich resident only expends 20% of their energy budget on transport, less than the EU average of 25%. The trams and U-bahn are already electric and the city is currently trialling hybrid buses and anticipates trialling all-electric buses in the future.

Munich is also one of the eight federal regions from across Germany that were chosen to trail 'eco-mobility'. As part of this scheme, as well as improvements to public transport, SWM will help build a charging infrastructure for electric cars. The aim is to have a 100 charging points by the end of 2010 in public and private locations, with the latter mainly being in workplaces.

Dr.Bieberbach sees electric cars as having a limited but important role in the overall transport plan, as do car-sharing schemes, but his priority is to persuade people out of their cars and onto public transport. He is looking to encourage electric car use within his own organisation of over 7,000 people by setting up an electric car-pool.

Perhaps one principal advantage SWM has over many other organisations in driving environmental innovation is that they have the responsibility and power to co-ordinate the various parts of the city infrastructure, and it is this over-view that gives SWM the opportunity to make Munich 'carbon-free.'

Richard Scrase