At the Vienna Science Days in Berlin in November 2024, experts from Vienna and Berlin city administrations and universities came together to discuss the challenges and opportunities for the development of the cities.
Vienna and Berlin, as the two largest German-speaking university cities, are ideal partners for the core idea of the Vienna Science Days: the best possible networking between science and politics, business and administration," says Peko Baxant, Member of the Vienna State Parliament and City Council. Franziska Giffey underlined the importance of the two cities' projects: "It is the biggest climate policy decision of this decade," said the Senator for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises and Mayor of Berlin, referring to the remunicipalization of district heating. Public housing also plays an important role in the heating transition. According to Giffey, Vienna's municipal housing is an international role model in this regard Renewable energies, energy transformation, security of supply and price stability are issues that are currently of particular concern to cities and citizens. Heat from wastewater, subway stations, data centers, rivers and canals will be used to generate heat. Deep geothermal energy will also make a significant contribution to the heat and energy supply in the future. One of the most powerful large-scale heat pumps in Europe supplies tens of thousands of households in Vienna with environmentally friendly heat. Berlin also already has a large heat pump in operation. Elisa Dunkelberg, consultant for heat transition and heat planning at the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and the Environment in Berlin, drew attention to a central challenge of deep geothermal energy: "There is a conflict between groundwater protection and the benefits of geothermal energy [...] It would be interesting to see to what extent drinking water pipes can be used to generate heat." The approach highlights the need to combine sustainable energy sources with the protection of key resources such as drinking water - a crucial point for the urban energy transition.
