ACT2 Site Hannover
Hannover, the capital of the German federal state of Lower Saxony, has had a focus on energy efficiency since at least the mid-1990s when it approved a local climate protection programme. Energy efficiency of buildings has already been a key consideration as around half of Hannover´s housing stock was built in the 1950s and 1960s to low energy retention standards. Hannover thus began to explore ways of financing modernization and retrofitting of buildings, and installing renewable energy capacity, such as solar water heating.