European citizens are increasingly concerned about the effects of climate change. Citizens’ commitment to take action against climate change is growing day by day. They want to be the driving force behind the energy transition and leave a liveable planet for their children. Citizens are Europe’s largest asset to make the energy transition a success as they are looking for affordable, climate friendly alternatives for their current energy pattern.
The family Fröhlich from Allensbach at Lake Constance in Germany demonstrates how engaged citizens can take concrete action. After improving the insulation of its house, the family looked for a climate friendly option to replace its old, polluting and inefficient heating system running on oil. Its final choice was a fuel cell unit. A fuel cell unit runs on hydrogen, produced from natural gas, and generates simultaneously heat and electricity. The family’s fuel consumption for heating dropped dramatically as the amount of gas required is equivalent to only one third of the oil consumption before. The result for the family Fröhlich is both a reduced carbon footprint and energy bill.
The PACE project is proud to have made this reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions happen. PACE partner and fuel cell unit manufacturer SenerTec delivered to the family Fröhlich its Dachs 0.8 fuel cell unit. The company developed this highly efficient heating solution for modern one- and two-family houses. While being dedicated to the highest efficiency standards, resulting in an efficiency score of A+++ for its Dachs 0.8, SenerTec wants to offer European citizens a future-proof, hydrogen-based heating solution.
“We have two children and we would of course like to show them what is important for the future. Thus, energy efficiency and climate protection are very dear to us”, explains to us Mike Fröhlich. He is even considering replacing their car with an electric car because now they can charge the car with the electricity produced from their fuel cell unit.
The PACE project and its partners aim to empower 2,800 European households and small businesses to produce their own heat and electricity in an efficient and climate friendly way. Our goal is that citizens can be an integral part of the solution in creating a carbon neutral energy system. We strongly believe that active citizens’ involvement will be key for Europe to make a successful energy transition. Therefore, the PACE project is offering a concrete solution to European citizens and we advocate for policies where people can have a wide variety of affordable, climate friendly alternatives to pick the solutions which suit their situation the best.
