• Energy Research

In the light of Germany’s chosen path towards the energy transition, the regulatory framework has changed considerably. New players have succeeded in entering the market, and renewable energies have become increasingly competitive. Greater electrification of the transport and heating sectors will be needed in the future to achieve national climate targets. Against this background, Germany’s big energy companies need to be sure that their sales will increase. However, they were unable to anticipate this development, and made strategic mistakes in the past. The development of sustainable business models in line with the energy transition failed to materialize. Now it is becoming increasingly clear that companies must create new business models to survive in the long term. These business models have to keep with the tradition, whilst meeting the needs of low-carbon power supplies. In this paper, we will examine the past and future challenges of the four energy companies and develop a proposal for evaluating sustainable business models. For this purpose, we use the multi-level perspective to categorize developments in the electricity market over the last 50 years, and then apply a multi-criteria analysis to derive five suitable business models from the results.

Schools play an important role in achieving climate protection goals, because they lay the foundation of knowledge for a responsible next generation. Therefore, schools as institutions have a special role model function. Enabling schools to become aware of their own carbon footprint (CF) is an important prerequisite for being able to tap the substantial CO2 reduction potential. Aiming at the direct involvement of students in the assessment process, a new assessment tool was developed within the Schools4Future project that gives students the opportunity to determine their own school’s CF. With this instrument the CO2 emissions caused by mobility, heating and electricity consumption as well as for food in the school canteen and for consumables (paper) can be recorded. It also takes into account existing renewable energy sources. Through the development of the tool, not only a monitoring instrument was established but also a concrete starting point from which students could take actions to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. This paper presents the tool and its methods used to calculate the CF and compares it with existing approaches. A comparative case study of four pilot schools in Germany demonstrates the practicability of the tool and reveals fundamental differences between the GHG emissions.

Publiziert als Diskussionsbeiträge der Scientists for Future 5 (43 pp). Die Erstveröffentlichung (nur in Deutsch) erfolgte am 16. Dez. 2020, diese geringfügige Revision 1.1 (Deutsch und Englisch) am 16. Jan. 2021. GERMAN SUMMARY (English Summary further below): Die Zeit drängt. Ohne schnell wirksame Gegenmaßnahmen werden Erderhitzung und Biodiversitätsverlust Ausmaße annehmen, welche die Lebensweise von Menschen nicht abschätzbaren Risiken aussetzen. Obwohl die Herausforderungen weiten Teilen der Bevölkerung bewusst sind, werden dringend nötige Entscheidungen aufgeschoben oder nur teilweise umgesetzt. Eine Ursache hierfür sind fehlende Foren, in denen sich Bürger:innen mit Expert:innen austauschen und gemeinsam mögliche Szenarien und Lösungen erörtern können. Scientists for Future empfiehlt deshalb, mit geeigneten Formen von Bürger:innenversammlungen eine breite und demokratisch partizipative Beteiligung an Zukunftsgestaltung und -sicherung zu ermöglichen. Diese sollten auch unabhängig von einem Auftrag von Regierung oder Parlament initiiert werden. Wir rufen daher zu einem Gründungstreffen auf, um Planung und Durchführung einer Bürger:innenversammlung zum Thema Klima im Jahr 2021 zu ermöglichen. Eine sorgfältige Planung ist nötig, damit die Durchführung neutral und offen geschieht. Hierfür werden einige zentrale Kriterien beschrieben. ENGLISH SUMMARY: Time is pressing. Without quick and effective countermeasures, global warming and loss of biodiversity will assume proportions that expose people’s way of life to incalculable risks. Although large parts of the population are aware of the challenges, urgently needed decisions are postponed or only partially implemented. One reason for this is the lack of forums where citizens can discuss possible scenarios and solutions with experts. Therefore, Scientists for Future recommends enabling a broad and democratic participatory involvement in shaping and securing the future by appropriate forms of citizens’ assemblies. These should also be initiated independently of a mandate from government or parliament. We therefore call for a founding meeting to enable the planning and implementation of a citizens’ assembly on the topic of climate in 2021. A careful planning is necessary, so that the execution happens neutrally and openly. For this purpose, some central criteria are described. ___ Suggested citation: Hagedorn, G.; Baasch, S., Blöbaum, A., Brendel, H., Hardt, J.N., Heiland, S. Klins­mann, M., Matthies, E., Pfennig, A., West, C., Wipfler, B., et al., (2021). Scientists for Future empfiehlt eine reprä­sen­ta­tive Klima-Bürger:innen­ver­sammlung im Jahr 2021 / Scientists for Future recommends a representative Climate Citizens’ Assem­bly in 2021 (Version 1.1, in Deutsch/German & Englisch/English). Diskussionsbeiträge der Scientists for Future, 5, 23 pp. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4417265. Volume 5 of "Diskussionsbeiträge der Scientists for Future". This publication contains both the German original text and an English translation.

In the energy sector, few topics, if any, are more hyped than hydrogen. Countries develop hydrogen strategies to provide a perspective for hydrogen production and use in order to meet climate-neutrality goals. However, in this topical field the role of water is less accentuated. Hence, in this study, we seek to map the interrelations between the water and wastewater sector on the one hand and the hydrogen sector on the other hand, before reflecting upon our findings in a country case study. We chose the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan because (i) hydrogen is politically discussed not least due to its high potentials for solar PV, and (ii) Jordan is water stressed—definitely a bad precondition for water-splitting electrolyzers. This research is based on a project called the German-Jordanian Water-Hydrogen-Dialogue (GJWHD), which started with comprehensive desk research mostly to map the intersectoral relations and to scope the situation in Jordan. Then, we carried out two expert workshops in Wuppertal, Germany, and Amman, Jordan, in order to further discuss the nexus by inviting a diverse set of stakeholders. The mapping exercise shows various options for hydrogen production and opportunities for planning hydrogen projects in water-scarce contexts such as Jordan.

More than 150 municipal utilities (so-called Stadtwerke) were established in Germany from the beginning of the millennium, bringing the total number of Stadtwerke currently established within the country to approximately 900. With responsibility for more than half of the supply of electricity, gas and heat in Germany, these Stadtwerke play a central role in the transformation of the energy sector, or Energiewende. In addition, due to their local and regional ties, Stadtwerke have a particular role to play in energy politics, the economy and across society. This article focuses on the motives behind, and grounds for, the current wave of newly established Stadtwerke. Further, it discusses the factors that were critical to the successful formation of new Stadtwerke in recent years. The results of our survey indicate that the establishment of municipal Stadtwerke is a suitable measure to implement the energy transition at the local level, whereby the concept of public value has a high level of importance for the local decision-makers. Collaboration and cooperation, as well as a resilience-oriented strategy, are important success factors for new Stadtwerke.

This paper argues that, although Japan’s and Germany’s energy transition paths differ in detail, a trend towards decentralisation is clearly evident in both countries. Based on comprehensive screening, own stocktaking and the results of a stakeholder dialogue, this paper highlights the motivation for different local actors to enter the energy market in both countries. Although there are challenges to success in a market dominated by large energy companies, this paper argues that the benefits to local communities outweigh the efforts. Overall, it is shown that democratisation and the decentralisation of the energy system are suitable to facilitate a successful transformation process in both countries.

Since the majority of network concession contracts in Germany were set to expire some time between 2005 and 2016, a window of opportunity arose in which to rebuild and remunicipalise the local energy supply. As a result, 72 new local power companies were established in Germany within the space of just seven years (between early 2005 and late 2012). This paper provides an introduction to the topic of establishing municipal utilities in Germany. The findings were identified on the basis of the comprehensive screening of all newly established municipal utilities in Germany. Our analysis provides information about regional concentration, the size of municipalities, the legal forms of the newly founded municipal public utilities and the role of strategic partnerships. The key findings are that remunicipalisation is not a question of size and that knowledge gaps may be closed by entering into close strategic partnerships.