Energy Transition

Fears loomed large when Germany’s last nuclear power plant was taken offline about a year ago. However, after the first winter without nuclear power in Germany, it can be confirmed: supply was consistently secure, prices significantly cheaper than in the winter of 2022/2023, and the share of renewable electricity has risen markedly again – a trend also observable in other European countries.

In 2023, Germany achieved a historic milestone: over half its electricity came from renewables, leading the EU with a 56% share. Wind energy now surpasses coal, highlighting the nation's green transformation. Despite progress, the expansion of wind turbines remains slow, underscoring the urgent need for enhanced storage technologies to secure a sustainable future.

The energy transition requires a paradigm shift in power supply: storage capacities for green electricity must be massively expanded. Electric car batteries can contribute to electric grid stability. They are particularly sustainable if the batteries are produced in Europe.

CO2 emissions are clearly too high: road transportation must deliver so that EU climate targets are not jeopardized. The figures are a fiasco for European transportation policy: in 2019, road transportation was responsible for 26 percent of all CO₂ emissions in the EU. In 1990, its share was “only” 15 percent. However, while other sectors have significantly stepped up the pace and total CO₂ emissions have fallen by 23 percent since 1990,...

The US government has made a total of 12 billion US dollars available to car manufacturers and suppliers in the form of grants and loans for the expansion of electromobility out of a total volume of 370 billion dollars.

This funding is intended for retrofitting factories for the production of electric vehicles and the necessary components. This move, announced by U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, is seen as a response to criticism from automakers and unions who had lamented environmental regulations.
The government wants to ensure that no jobs are jeopardized while transitioning to electromobility...

The German Federal Network Agency’s annual report points out the weak spots: In 2022, around 900 million euros had to be spent on stabilizing the electric grid because grid bottlenecks prevented the use of renewable energies. 

The cost of stabilizing the German electric grid reached an all-time high in 2022. A record value of over 8 billion kWh of renewable energy (compared to 5.8 billion in the previous year) was limited due to grid congestion. This mainly affected offshore (51 percent) and onshore wind power (39 percent). Solar power was also increasingly lost due to grid congestion: the loss rose from 237 million kWh in 2021 to 620 million in 2022...