On October 24, 2019, the partners of the TRAIL research project, which also include employees of the Chair of Building Physics at the Bauhaus University Weimar, presented the results in a separate session at the 8^th ThEGA Forum 2019. More than 100 listeners from politics, business, science and administration were interested in the results of the two-year research activity.

TRAIL stands for the energetic transformation in rural areas and was funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy. The main target group are municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants, which have been rather sporadically active in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable energies due to their limited personnel and financial capacities.

In many of these smaller municipalities, the question of how the climate protection strategies of the federal government and the state of Thuringia can be implemented cost-effectively with the available personnel arises again and again. Therefore, the establishment of a software-supported development and moderation model was the main focus of research activities. The goal was to test and implement affordable options for energy savings and efficient energy use in the predominantly rural area of Thuringia.

With the prototypically developed TRAIL tool, local authorities are now being enabled to enter into the necessary processes of energy and heat transformation. The modular structure is not intended to completely replace the regular steps of necessary planning processes, especially with regard to the depth of the analysis of the existing situation and the formulation of mission statements and development goals. Rather, a basic framework can be developed which, with data, instructions for action and initial measures, provides a solid foundation for the energy development of the municipalities.

During the project, this approach was accompanied by several model communities. With scientists, practitioners from planning offices and the public administration, it was intensively discussed at several events - both nationally and internationally. From now on, the tool is available free of charge in a first starter version and in a Plus version with extended content - initially only for the participating model communities. In the subsequent exploitation phase, the software solution developed is intended to provide all interested municipalities in Thuringia with a step-by-step introduction to the topic of energy efficiency using tools such as

- interactive map displays

- Action sheets

- Instructions and options for action

- Survey templates

- Evaluation forms

and many other practical components are also provided free of charge. Further information is available at www.trail-energie.de.