With its climate action model, the municipality of Feldbach is facing up to the challenges presented by the climate and energy transition. Its integrated approach encompasses numerous measures relating to buildings and energy, water, sustainable mobility and the resilient city.
Feldbach is now starting to implement the climate prevention model that was developed together with the Lokale Energie Agentur (Local Energy Agency, or LEA) and that contains 33 specific measures across four fields of action. The city’s long-term target is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero by 2040, a process of transformation that is involving all departments on the town council.
“The funding scheme is enabling us to provide staff to handle the overall design for the programme’s implementation over the next three years and kick off a learning process across the entire administration and amongst the general public,” explains Robert Schmidt, who heads up the Property Management, Energy and Climate department.
Reducing energy consumption in municipal buildings
The municipality’s 72 properties consume around 3 GWh of electricity and 6 GWh of heat, and targeted measures – such as insulating ceilings – are aimed at reducing this energy demand. The biggest energy consumer is the city’s indoor swimming pool, which is to undergo extensive refurbishment over the next three years to make it more thermally and energy-efficient. With its photovoltaics masterplan, the city intends to ramp up the expansion of its PV systems even further and cover most of its electricity demand itself in the future. It currently boasts an installed output of 1.23 MWp which equated to around 1.01 GWh of electricity generated in 2025. Some 490 MWh of this was used directly on site, with a further 270 MWh being sent to other municipal buildings within a local energy community.
Focusing on quality of life
Feldbach is stepping up its focus on measures designed to improve the microclimate and avoid heat islands. This includes numerous projects for adding greenery and shade to the town centre and creating retention areas for storing rainwater.These projects are receiving scientific support from 4ward Energy Research, a research company based in Graz. Aside from technical solutions, project manager Peter Köhldorfer also considers nature to be a decisive factor: “In terms of heat islands, it’s clear that there are a great many good technical measures out there. Ultimately, however, nature offers the best protection, because nothing is as effective as a tree.”
klimaneutralestadt.at/en/projects/pioneer-cities/feldbach.php
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