Energy Transition

Stefanie Groll takes a look at the long awaited report, which is considered the onset of the coal exit in Germany. What does the report propose for climate protection, structural change, workers, and industries?

On July 2nd and 3rd, the French-German-Polish Forum on European Structural Change convened in Paris.

The transition to renewable energy will also require automatically coordinating generation and consumption. On the challenges of the digitized power system.

Heating, cooling and transport consume huge amounts of fossil fuels. Converting them to renewable energy poses challenges, but also offers solutions to the problem of variable power generation.

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Conventional energy comes from a few large, powerful firms. But for renewable energy sources, it makes sense for the generation capacity to be owned by individuals and communities.

Renewables have moved from being a sideshow to the main act in Europe’s energy theatre. Government support has been key to this – but renewables are increasingly able to stand on their own.

In the EU, an Energy Union is emerging from an array of packages, policies, projects and proposals. They map the shift from conventional energy markets to flexible ones that promote renewables.

Europe is making progress towards its energy transition at a rate few imagined ten years ago. There is still a long way to go, but the continent is now in a position to become the global leader in green energy.

Cities can be a hotbed of innovation. They are big enough to try out new ideas on a large scale, but small enough to brush them aside if they do not work out.

Nowhere in the EU is smog more suffocating than in southern Poland. This year, the polluted Polish mining city Katowice will host the COP24 climate conference. Ahead of that, change is in the air — and on the ground.

Germany has been seen as a leader in renewable energy in the European Union, but there is still a long way to go. To revitalize both European and German energy transitions, Rebecca Bertram proposes three strategies for Germany’s new government to put in place at the EU level.

Ecological modernization is the key to a just society of the future. The core project of such a modernization is the transformation of the energy system - as it was discussed at the conference "Work in Progress: Energy Transition".

Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change. Anyway the countries are planning to cover lacks in energy demand and supply mainly with coal. However, renewables from solar over biomass to wind have a huge potential in the region.

What options do German policymakers have when shaping the European Energiewende debate? The Heinrich Böll Foundation proposes a set of recommendations.

We brought US community leaders to Germany for a week-long tour of former coal regions. On the tour, we explored ways in which coal communities can adapt to changing markets, and reinvent themselves for a sustainable future.

From the national unilateralism to the European project. The German energy market will only be successful if it cooperates with its European neighbors.

Are the Greens compatible with Angela Merkel? An interview with Ralf Fücks, president of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, on coalitions with Merkel, the rise of the AfD, as well as the foundation’s development over the past 20 years.

The endorsement of the Paris Agreement at the Chinese G20 was clearly a step forward for energy sustainability in the face of climate change. Still the indications of how it might be achieved is limited in scope.