Energiewende is the word.
Literally, it means “energy turn,” and the term has entered the international lexicon to denote Germany’s shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Germany has made large strides in its energy transition. 27 per cent of the country’s electricity now comes from renewable sources. That’s three times as much as it produced ten years ago.
Head of the Environment and Climate Protection department for the City of Osnabrück in Germany, Detlef Gerdts, outlined in his presentation last week to audiences at UBC and SFU three essential elements of energy transition: social acceptance, a financing system, and buy-in from all levels of government.
“It is very important to get people engaged,” emphasised Gerdts. “The energy transition process is a very complex thing. No one when we started—not scientists, technicians, politicians—could imagine how complex this system is.”
Two projects which generated widespread engagement in Osnabrück—and could be replicated in B.C. —are the SUN-AREA and roof-insulation mapping projects.
The “quite cost-effective” SUN-AREA program, for example, allowed homeowners to search for their own addresses on the city’s database. Homeowners could see on the colour-coded maps exactly how many kilowatts per year solar panels on their roofs could generate and at what cost.
“We were the first city [to launch the SUN-AREA project],” said Gerdts, “and now every city in Germany has one.” 45,000 people, a quarter of Osnabrück’s population, looked up their addresses on the SUN-AREA maps.
Energiewende hasn’t been all rainbows and sunshine in Germany. Despite the country’s progress, projections show Germany won’t meet its 2020 emissions target. Many power plants still burn lignite, a brown coal which emits even more CO₂ than hard coal.
Despite the hurdles, Germany’s politicians continue to support energiewende. Gerdts emphasised that a clean energy transition requires buy-in from “all levels of administration,” from the European Union to state and municipal government. “No matter who is governing in Germany, they’ve always kept on this goal [of energy transition],” said Gerdts. “This allows for long-term commitments . . . that allow for renewables.”
The continued political support helps sustain private investment, he noted. “Last year in Germany, CAN$20 billion was invested in renewables. . . . The money is there. Pension funds and insurance companies, they invest because . . . they’re sure their investments [won’t be] lost by the next election.”
On top of sustained political support, he noted another financing system such as a steadily increasing carbon tax or emissions trade system must be put in place to fund the transition.
Sound like a tall order? Well, there are grounds for optimism. Gerdts pointed out that Canada won’t have to start from the very beginning of energy transition process. “We paid lots of billions of Euros,” he noted wryly, “for experiences others don’t have to have anymore.”
By Jenny Tan, 23 June 2016