Energy price crisis, climate crisis: questions upon questions! How can energy transition succeed, how can we get on the road to climate neutrality?
In the 25th podcast episode, City Councilor Friedemann Kalmbach meets with Andreas Flick, second chairman of LSG Rheinstetten, and Hans Bodrogi, board member of the citizens’ energy cooperative, at the Rheinstetten glider airfield. Flying and climate protection?
The Luftsportgemeinschaft Rheinstetten (LSG Rheinstetten), which unites three clubs, shows how this can be done in practice: Flugsportverein 1910 Karlsruhe e.V., Akademische Fliegergruppe am Karlsruher Institut für Technologie e.V. (Akaflieg) and Luftsportverein Albgau e.V.
Together with Naturstrom Rheinstetten Bürgerenergiegenossenschaft eG, they are setting out to become climate neutral. They vividly show how they implemented a solar installation at the airfield, which feeds the first electric winch in Baden-Württemberg and gets the gliders to take off. For Karlsruhe associations, this is an exciting practical example of work with citizen energy cooperatives, as the Karlsruhe Energy and Climate Agency (KEK) is currently launching.
The air sports community sees for itself a social and an ecological responsibility. The association is committed as stage for youth flight enthusiasts and research projects:
“We have close to 100 young people up to age 25 here who are in training with us. With us, they learn the sport of flying from the ground up, and with us they learn team spirit and responsibility,” says Andreas Flick about the social work of the aviation club.
Originally, the goal of the three clubs was a climate-neutral aviation sports club, which was to become a reality in 2025. Work on this began several years ago and is now showing results: Gliders fly with self-produced electricity and electricity-powered vehicles drive on the airfield.
Private households in Rheinstetten will soon also have the opportunity to obtain green electricity. For a future project the citizen energy cooperative is already for some time with the public utilities Karlsruhe in discussions. The goal is a special electricity – a Rheinstetten citizen electricity “that includes a discounted component,” says Hans Bodrogi. This electricity then runs through the municipal utilities, but is fed into the grid by the citizens’ energy cooperative using natural power.
