German Energiewende: Lessons for Korea - Regional Programme Energy Security and Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific
Event Reports
With now more than 30 percent of electricity from renewable energy (RE) sources, Germany is leading in the green transformation of its energy system. Whilst tremendous progress has been made on the production side of RE, Germany’s energy transformation now faces severe bottlenecks: upgrading and “smartizing” grid systems, coordination with and integration into the European Energy Union, coping to fulfill the ambitious emissions’ reduction goals due to weak progress in e-mobility and a rapid facing-out of nuclear energy. However, one can be optimistic about the success of the transformation as public support of the energy transformation will remain high, not least due to a long-term public debate, which already begun in the 1970s, and which paved the way for an overwhelming support for increased energy efficiency and substantial financial subsidization of RE. Yet, legal and administrative regulations have to be revised to prevent a further increase of financial burden for private households and companies. Production and distribution market should be even more open to market forces to increase innovation and reduce subsidies.
