The joint project KuLaRuhr ("Sustainable urban cultural landscape in the Ruhr metropolis") deals with, among other things, the question of how uses of areas of land in the model space of the Ruhr metropolis and its periphery can be planned, developed and interlinked, so that they contribute to a sustainable use of the resources land, water and energy and hence increase the attractiveness of the region and thus enance its quality of life. The sub-project  "Optimisation of the energy efficiency of settlements" is intended to show with what measures the energy balance of smaller settlement areas can be optimised. The emphasis in that case is on the potential of open spaces for power generation, saving and storage