Bioenergy village - Ecological and social aspects in implementation of a sustainability project

In the project described here the electricity and heat supply of an entire German village has been changed from conventional to biomass energy sources in 2005. This lighthouse project, the first bioenergy village in Germany, has been initiated by a scientist team from the Universities of Gottingen, Kassel, and Berlin and was realized by the active participation of the population of the village Juehnde in Southern Lower Saxony (800 inhabitants). The ongoing ecological, economical, and social changes are analyzed to enable the transfer of the model to other interested villages in Germany and worldwide. The technical concept consists of three components: (1) An anaerobic digestion plant (supplied by energy crops and liquid manure) with a combined heat and power generator (CHIP) producing electricity and heat energy, (2) a central heating plant fired by locally produced wood chips for additional heat demand during the winter, and (3) a hot water pipeline distributing the heat energy to the connected households. The history of the project, the social implementation, and the first results of the ecological and social changes in the village are reported.