Germany Launches Its Transition

How one of the most advanced industrial nations is moving to 100 percent energy from renewable sources.

By Donald W. Aitken, Ph.D.

In just 10 years, Germany has transitioned to the forefront of global renewable energy applications. Here, a 1.5-megawatt NEG Micon/Vestas NM82C turbine is installed in Grevenbroich amid the billowing smoke of a lignite power plant. Photo courtesy of Vestas Wind Systems

Can renewable energy development keep pace with rising global energy demand? As world governments struggle with this question, Germany is advancing with resolve in a transition to 100 percent energy from renewable resources. The German government accepts that the goal is technically and economically possible, and has adopted a long-term national policy for the transition. After years of reliance on nuclear energy — which supplies 30 percent of the nation’s electricity — Germany has concluded that nuclear is a dead-end and has established long-term plans to phase it out.

Germany’s most urgent conclusion is that the period lasting until about 2020 comprises “make-or-break” years for the renewable energy transition. It is this conviction that has driven German policymakers to introduce the world’s most aggressive support for renewable energy, to stick with it during the past decade and to guarantee that support for the next 20 to 30 years.

Donald Aitken, served eight years on the board of the Germany-based International Solar Energy Society. E-mail this author >>>