Energy transition in Lower Saxony: Citizens demand a digital revolution!

Energy transition in Lower Saxony: Citizens demand a digital revolution!

In Lower Saxony today everything revolves around the energy transition – under the motto “Energy transition: Implementation instead of stalling!” an extremely exciting event took place. The focus was on the need to maintain and advance the momentum of the energy transition. Not only positive developments, such as the boom in solar and wind energy, but also critical voices were raised, for example about the planning of an electricity demand forecast with zero industrial growth by Economics Minister Katherina Reiche. Their skepticism towards industrial renewal and digital innovation approaches was met with skepticism by the participants, report sven-giegold.de.

The energy transition has established itself as an important process for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting renewable energies. Over 60% of installed energy generation in Germany now comes from renewable sources such as wind and sun. This aims to achieve the promised climate neutrality by 2050. So far, Germany has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 27% since 1990. In order to further achieve the ambitious goals, an increase in citizen energy is of central importance.

Role of community energy

An important topic of the event was community energy, which continues to be one of the central pillars of the energy transition. A study shows that almost a third of the installed renewable capacity is already privately owned. Among farmers, this proportion is even over 40%. Citizens recognized the economic opportunities of renewables early on, which is reflected in a high share of ownership of wind and solar projects. In recent years, however, the share of community energy has been declining, from over 50% ten years ago to only around 40% in 2019. This development was addressed by the participants at the event, who presented a plan for an energy transition 2.0 to stop this trend and thus further reduce the costs of energy production, reported unendlich-viel-energie.de.

A crucial aspect of community energy is the common motto: “Energy from everyone, for everyone”. This philosophy promotes decentralized and fair energy production, which brings local benefits to the population and reduces energy costs. A suitable plan that integrates digital networks, smart storage and flexible consumers could pave the way to achieve this goal.

Outlook and challenges

Those involved in the event also discussed the challenges that the energy transition continues to bring with it. These include, among other things, high costs and numerous regulatory hurdles. The increasing proportion of traders and large companies in the industry creates intense competition and can potentially push citizens further out of the market. Information shows that in 2019, funds and banks already took the lead in building new plants, which is putting pressure on the community energy transition. The market for offshore wind energy is also increasingly dominated by large energy companies, which could further exacerbate the decline in community energy. According to Wikipedia, nuclear energy will have been completely phased out by 2023, and future energy forecasts promise not to achieve the set goals.

In any case, the event conveyed the feeling that there are still many unanswered questions, but at the same time there is also a lot of potential for improvement. Those present were invited to actively participate in this important discussion and to further contribute their ideas for implementing the energy transition.