ENERGY DEMOCRACY Germany’S ENERGIEWENDE to Renewables Energy Democracy

Craig Morris & Arne Jungjohann ENERGY DEMOCRACY Germany’s ENERGIEWENDE to Renewables Energy Democracy Craig Morris • Arne Jungjohann Energy Democracy Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables Craig Morris Arne Jungjohann Petite Planète, Freiburg and Berlin , Stuttgart , Germany Germany ISBN 978-3-319-31890-5 ISBN 978-3-319-31891-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31891-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016945578 © Th e Editor(s) (if applicable) and Th e Author(s) 2016 Th is work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and trans- mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Th e use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Th e publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: © VPC Travel Photo / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper Th is Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature Th e registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland For Phillip and Pascale Energy democracy , n. [ɛnərdʒi dɪmɑkrəsi] 1) when citizens and communities can make their own energy, even when it hurts energy corporations fi nancially; 2) something currently mainly pursued in Denmark and Germany but that can spread around the world during the current window of opportunity; 3) the most often overlooked benefi t of distributed renewables in the fi ght against climate change; 4) something to fi ght for as the path to better quality of life with stronger communities and better personal relationships. vii Preface Th is book is a history of Germany’s energy transition—its Energiewende. It is not the history of the Energiewende. A book of this length couldn’t be defi nitive or exhaustive. On the other hand, most international readers— and, no doubt, numerous Germans—who assume that the Energiewende started in 2011 after the nuclear accident in Fukushima are likely to be surprised to hear how old the grassroots movement is. Since both of us have spent at least the past decade communicating German energy and climate policymaking for the international commu- nity, we were struck by the awkward perception of the Energiewende after Fukushima. Following the nuclear phaseout in 2011, the Energiewende drew attention around the world for being allegedly exceptional with its move from nuclear power to wind and solar. Yet, Germany is not exceptional for any of this. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, and Switzerland all have nuclear phaseout plans (some already completed), and France aims to reduce its reliance on nuclear. Th e rest of Europe either has no nuclear reactors or faces an unplanned phaseout as old plants reach the end of their lifetimes and country after country fails to build new reactors. Germany isn’t exceptional for wind or solar either. Italy and Greece have a higher share of solar power on their grids; China has more installed. Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Romania, and Lithuania have a higher or similar share of wind power. And China and the US have more installed. ix x Preface Th e Energiewende is nonetheless exceptional in one way too often overlooked. Apart from Denmark and, more recently, Scotland, Germany is the only country in the world where the switch to renewables is a switch to energy democracy. We wanted to remedy that over- sight with this book. Morris is an American writer based in Germany; Jungjohann, a former Washington-based policy expert fostering transatlantic cooperation on energy and climate matters. As contributing editor of Renewables International, Morris suddenly found himself thrust into the role of explaining the Energiewende in English in the wake of Fukushima, when few journalists working in English knew the full history. In 2012, we then joined forces to found the website EnergyTransition.de, fi rst with an e-book and later with a blog, to help fi ll the gap. We are both often asked why a transition to renewables largely in the hands of citizens has been possible in Germany but not, say, in the US and the UK (at least not up to now). With his years of experience in the Deutscher Bundestag, Jungjohann brought numerous insider stories and interview contacts to the table. Morris, in return, personally knew many of the people from Wyhl to Schönau—arguably, the region that gave birth to the Energiewende— because he had lived in the area since 1992. An American–German duo was also interesting given the topic and target audience. Perhaps ironi- cally, Jungjohann sometimes felt uncomfortable with Morris’s praise of Germany and criticism of the US, while Morris could not always agree with Jungjohann’s praise of the US or criticism of Germany. Each author probably expects more of his home country than is reasonable. Th e result is a more balanced book than either author would have written alone. Several of the chapters are based heavily on individual books, as our footnotes reveal. Readers may wonder why we did not use broader sources of information. Th ey certainly exist: Paul Gipe has produced impressive work on the history of wind power, even with a focus on Germany; John Perlin has covered the history of solar masterfully. Gabrielle Hecht has also written authoritatively on the history of nuclear in France, and we do not cite her in our comparison either. Preface xi Th e reason is that all these books are already available in English. In using books only available in German and French, we aimed to at least make the gist of this untranslated literature accessible to a wider audience. It should be noted that the general fi ndings and conclusions in the literature largely overlap; Hecht and Topçu come to very much the same conclusions about nuclear France, as do Gipe, Oelker, and Lobe for wind or Perlin and Janzing for solar. Later chapters also rely heavily on the fantastic German news archive at Energie-Chronik.de run by German journalist Udo Leuschner. As we move closer to the future, Morris’s own online publications are referenced more frequently, as is our collaboration at EnergyTransition.de. Our intent is to show international readers how German citizens got their government behind a policy that the public wanted. As such, our story downplays numerous aspects important for the German energy sector’s history, but not necessarily for the energy transition as a grassroots movement. One example is the transformation of the energy sector in the former East Germany after the Fall of the Wall, which this book does not deal with in depth. For the sake of brevity, this book does not tell the tale of every part of the grassroots movement worth mentioning either. For instance, Gorleben—the proposed site of (West) Germany’s nuclear waste reposi- tory—played a huge role in the anti-nuclear movement; it thus deserves its own subchapter, which we unfortunately did not have space for. Furthermore, in addition to the numerous people mentioned briefl y, there were also countless environmental and renewable energy campaigns and trade shows driven by citizens. Numerous state and local govern- ments also passed ambitious legislation and set up Energy Agencies, which have done excellent work in helping the public implement not only renewable energy technology, but also effi ciency. Not all these help- ful participants could be mentioned. Many people helped shape this book. Th e authors would like to thank those who provided wise counsel and encouraging feedback at diff er- ent stages of the project: energy analyst Toby Couture, journalist Osha Davidson, energy policy expert Jose Etcheverry, John Farrell of the ILSR, WWEA executive director Stefan Gsänger, Paul Gunther of Beyond xii Preface Nuclear, Bastian Hermisson of the Washington offi ce of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, author Mark Hertsgaard, Gisa Holzhausen of the GIZ, Tetsunari Iida of ISEP, Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic Institute, journalist Bernward Janzing, Anna Leidreiter of the World Future Council, Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, Georg Maue of the German Embassy Washington DC, Daniel Lerch of the Post Carbon Institute, energy analyst Hugo Lukas, journalist Gregory McDonald, English lin- guist Paul McPherron, Phyllis McPherron, Michael Mehling of MIT, Jennifer Morgan of Greenpeace International, Diane Moss of the 100% Renewables Institute, Klaus Müschen of the German Environmental Agency (UBA), Christ Nelder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, energy analyst Uwe Nestle, Alan Nogee of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Alexander Ochs of the Worldwatch Institute, Sara Peach of University of North Carolina, Josef Pesch of EWS, energy analyst Raff aele Piria, Anya Schoolman of the Committee Power Network, Joachim Seel of UC Berkeley, Dave Toke of the University of Aberdeen, energy analyst Sezin Topçu, energy analyst Dieter Seifried, Dirk Vansintjan of REscoop, former Lead Mission Operations Engineer at SpaceX Daniel Villani, and retired EU offi cial James Wimberley. Arne’s special thanks go to Verena for covering his back in an exciting and demanding time with a young family.

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