Municipal heating planning in Berlin envisions a grid-connected local heating supply based on local renewable energy and waste heat sources for many inner-city neighbourhoods without existing district heating. Due to numerous obstacles, its initiation and implementation has not been a sure-fire success so far. A key challenge lies in the cooperation of many stakeholders, necessary for the success of neighbourhood solutions. Using the example of a neighbourhood in northern Schöneberg, WärmSchöN addresses the question of which processes and tools are necessary for the borough and state, in cooperation with local stakeholders, to initiate and support climate-neutral and socially acceptable grid-connected heat supply solutions in existing inner-city neighbourhoods with limited space availability. At the same time, solutions are being developed in four fields: stakeholder activation and cooperation and financing models; participation, acceptance and social compatibility; options for action by the district office and administrative processes; and technological supply solutions. Building on the experiences and solutions in northern Schöneberg, blueprints and tools that can be transferred to the Berlin area and beyond are being developed, and existing instruments are being validated and further developed. The transdisciplinary research project is being carried out in close cooperation between the Tempelhof-Schöneberg borough office, the state of Berlin, two research institutes and stakeholders from the neighbourhood.
| Project term: | Jan. 2026 – Dec. 2027 |
| Funding code: | 03EN3126D |
| Project management: | Maximilian Friebe |
