• Children and teachers welcome Lord Mayor Sibylle Keupen to the official inauguration of the photovoltaic system in Eilendorf.
• Impressive figures: 360-square-metre system produces 64,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, saving 29 tons of_CO2.
• The city's building management is pursuing an innovative strategy. In the short term, nine more systems will be installed, and by 2025 as many as 22 more on municipal roofs.

In Eilendorf, the future is on the roof: the new photovoltaic system on the Birkstraße elementary school covers 360 square meters. It is the first to feed electricity into the grid using an innovative system and marks the start of many more to follow in the coming months and years. The city has set itself the goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2030. In terms of solar energy, it is setting the first exclamation mark in Eilendorf!

"We sing a song for the sun, two, three, four!"

And even though the sun was hiding behind the clouds on this rainy fall day, everyone in the building was beaming. Mayor Sibylle Keupen visited the children and teachers at KGS Birkstraße for the official opening of the facility on Wednesday (October 9). The school choir with pupils from classes 2a and 2b immediately greeted Aachen's mayor with a specially rehearsed song. Keupen and many others, including Eilendorf's district mayor Elke Eschweiler, district head Gert Kempf and principal Anke Piel, clapped along happily to the refrain "We sing a song for the sun, two, three, four!". "Great!", said the mayor and was even more delighted when she even received handmade gifts from some of the children.

Afterwards, everyone praised the fantastic climate building project, which was realized under the leadership of the building management of the city of Aachen. Seven young third and fourth graders impressed the audience with a technical presentation. They explained how solar energy actually works in a child-friendly way. They also had questions for the Lord Mayor. "Do you actually have a photovoltaic system on the roof at home?" - "Yes, I do," revealed Sibylle Keupen. "But of course it's much smaller than the one you have here on your school roof."

Innovative system: regional direct marketing

In the coming years, the city of Aachen wants to turn the big wheel on many of the roofs of its municipal buildings, as Jens Hauschild, Commercial Director of Facility Management, and his team reported. The Birkstraße PV system already boasts impressive figures: Its capacity is just under 76 kilowatt peak (kWpeak). Experts estimate an electricity production of 64,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year - roughly equivalent to the consumption of 16 single-family homes. This system alone will save 29 tons of_{CO2 per}year in the future. For the Eilendorf school, including the gymnasium and swimming pool, this means that it will produce almost all of its own consumption, which is around 86,000 kWh, on the roof. However, the electricity is not automatically consumed directly on site.

The town's photovoltaic strategy extends far beyond the Eilendorf elementary school. The magic word is "regional direct marketing". This is because an innovative system ensures that the regeneratively generated electricity, which flows continuously during daylight hours via systems such as the one in Birkstrasse, is always "directed" to where it is needed. "This means, for example, that we can use the PV system on the elementary school to supply the traffic lights in the city center with electricity at weekends," explained Martin Lambertz, head of the "Technical Facility Management Projects and Energy" department. Lambertz came up with the idea of regional direct marketing, which is above all an extremely economical system and great for the city's_{carbon footprint}. Because: "The electricity that we produce here regionally stays in Aachen." Many other municipalities in Germany are now even interested in the Aachen system.

PV expansion status and plans

Experts such as Martin Lambertz are currently investing a lot of time and expertise to get as many PV systems as possible onto Aachen's roofs as quickly as possible. The aim is to install photovoltaic systems on all suitable roofs of municipal buildings over the next three to four years, operate them themselves and use the electricity in the form of regional direct marketing.

An analysis has shown that the city could enable an output of 14,000 kWpeak in the near future. This corresponds to an annual electricity production of 12,500 megawatt hours (MWh). This would_save 5600 tons of_CO2 ! For comparison: the electricity consumption of all municipal buildings is around 24,000 MWh per year. "That's our target," asserts Jens Hauschild, Head of Building Management. "In a few years, we want to cover half of our municipal electricity consumption with our own PV systems."

In addition to Birkstrasse, a further nine systems will go into operation in the short term -

with a total output of around 590 kWpeak. A further 22 PV systems with a connected load of around 1,600 kWpeak on municipal roofs are planned for 2025.

Further information on the activities of the City of Aachen as part of the "Aachen tackles the future" campaign can be found at www.aachenklima.de.

Note to editors:

You are welcome to use the attached photos for editorial purposes in the context of reporting, stating the copyright "Photos: City of Aachen / Andreas Schmitter": www.aachen.de/images/pressefotos/birkstrasse.zip.

Birkstrasse01: "We sing a song for the sun!": The KGS Birkstrasse school choir greeted Lord Mayor Sibylle Keupen (back right) with a song at the inauguration of the new PV system.

Birkstrasse02: Kick-off in Eilendorf: the new 360 square meter PV system in Birkstrasse is the first of its kind to feed electricity into the grid. The city is pushing ahead with the expansion in the coming months and years.

Birkstrasse03: Beaming faces: Lord Mayor Sibylle Keupen answered many questions during her visit to KGS Birkstrasse and even received handmade gifts from some of the children.

Birkstrasse04: Little climate experts: Seven third and fourth graders from Eilendorf elementary school gave a presentation on how a PV system works.