Climate-neutral City 2035 – Commercial area City district Weilimdorf, Stuttgart, Germany

Climate-neutral City 2035 – Commercial area City district Weilimdorf

In summer 2022, the Stuttgart City Council set the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2035. Industry, trade, commerce and services are responsible for almost 50% of the city's carbon emissions, so it is important to identify the potential for climate protection in the city's industrial zones.

Transsolar analysed the commercial area of Stuttgart-Weilimdorf to develop an exemplary action plan for a transformation. The available data as well as existing studies and action papers of the city served as a basis. In addition, a survey was carried out and interviews were conducted with key companies and all results combined. A boundary of the assessment was defined for the area.

To take account of the spatial and structural perspective of urban development planning, the district was divided into four clusters according to the predominant uses: office campus, logistics, manufacturing industry, and small businesses. Their emissions analysis shows the focuses.

Due to the high density of workplaces, the “office campus” cluster also generates a high volume of mobility, but ‘at the same time, there is great potential for savings here by sensitising users. The “logistics/freight forwarding” cluster has a very high demand for electricity. Inventories and measures such as replacing outdated cooling systems and effective facility management can make a major contribution. Mobility in logistics probably accounts for the highest proportion of emissions. In the “manufacturing industry,” the switch to more efficient machines and a hydrogen strategy for processes where electrification is not possible are important goals. In the “small business/trade” sector, building-specific considerations and intensive support for smaller businesses are required.

The Weilimdorf district is an example for the entire city, showing that there is great potential for reducing emissions. In addition, industrial zones with their buildings offer large areas for utilisation by photovoltaics. In Stuttgart, the geothermal potential is comparatively low, but there is potential in the waste heat from the large number of manufacturing companies, e.g. for supplying neighbouring offices or residential buildings.
The energy potential on site of photovoltaics and geothermal energy is not sufficient within the boundary of the assessment to fully compensate for Weilimdorf's high energy requirements. Carbon/climate neutrality cannot be achieved with this alone.
Short term, all energy-saving measures must be taken on the way to a climate neutral commercial area, accompanied and followed by a gradual conversion of the heat and process energy supply to minimise the purchase of energy and offsetting from outside the area.

Longer term, a spatial and infrastructure planning strategy is required, including the cooperation of all stakeholders involved in the decarbonisation of trade and industry throughout the city, the use of local heat sources and networking, such as through local heating networks, rail networks and hydrogen infrastructure for industry.