EEPS 517 Energy Crises (and the World of Energy) Lecture 4 – Energiewende
Barış Sanlı Bilkent University – EEPS Program
Aim
● What are the causes of Energiewende ● What are the effects of Energiewende ● Defining Energiewende ● Crises & renewables
Reading List
● Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016, Chapter 1. Energiewende: The Solution to More Problems Than Climate Change ● Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016, Chapter 5. The Power Rebels of Schönau ● Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016, Chapter 7. The 1990: Laying the Foundations for the Energiewende
Whyl
https://ejatlas.org/conflict/whyl-in-germany Wyhl
● Inspired by French protestors ● Inspired US anti-nuclear plant campaign (New York, Seabrook) (1976) ● Homemade
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Whyl
http://fudder.de/wyhl-1975-ein-aktivist-erinnert-sich--120935466.html "We said no"
First site was not Wyhl
● 1971 – Baden Württemberg(state) – On Rhine near Breisach – Historic town 15000 – Governor Hans Filbinger
It was a farm community
"one of the worst effects of the nuclear plant will be water vapor from the cooling towers"(1975)
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Initial process ● A local pharmacist and reserve army captain – Then 65,000 signatures ● Then decided that it should be Wyhl
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/28/archives/west-german-farmers-resistance-forces-review-of-plans-for-nuclear.html
1973
● 19 July 1973 – Officially announced – Nuclear plant (Wyhl) ● German Chemiewerke München (buyer) – Lead production (in France) ● Politicians turning rural communities to industrial landscapes
●
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Community responses
● Campaigner Jean-Jacques Rettig – "From Rotterdam to Basel, they wanted to connect industry along Rhine" ● A mill owner – "First we need the energy. Then, industry will come. And the people who live here were to move to the foothills of the Black Forest .. or Mountains in France"
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Area
● During WWII – "This are was 80% destroyed" – "People have been evacuated 3 times" ● A patchwork of disconnected farm
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 1973 - II
● First oil crisis ● Nuclear appeared to be key ● 1974 France's Messmer plan – 170 plants by 2000 ● (only 1/3rd completed) ● 1970s greatest growth in nuclear
French fire
● German-Swiss-French – Upper Rhine as the largest concentration of nuclear ● French couldn't resist nuclear ● But they blocked "lead plant" ● Germans helped them – "a generation earlier, the people in these regions had waged war"
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 French side – with German help
● "France had seen severe protests by long- haired students since 1968" ● But these were farmers ● 20 September 1974 – Germans to help French (prevented for 6 hours)
●
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 1974-1975
● 13 Oct 1974 – 11 representatives of Marckolsheim stepped down ● German firm called protesters "anarchists and leftist extremists" ● Mid-November – French govt to witdraw construction permit ● 25 Feb 1975 – French govt put an end
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Alsace
● Region changed hand 1870-1945 ● French word allemand – Dialect spoken Alsace, Baden(DE), Switzerland ● Greates literature in Middle High german ● After WWII : cross-border identity
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Wyhl nuclear process
● 90000 signatures (in 7 months) against ● 5 Nov 1974: permitting process started ● 17 Dec 1974 citizens wanted to talk – Not even the bus allowed to park near parliament ● 12 Jan 1975 – Referandum – "A tea pot – just like a nuclear plant" ● 55% for nuclear plant
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Construction
● 17 Feb 1975 - Filbinger gave the go ahead ● 18 Feb 1975 (date on memorial stone) 180 opponents spent the night (for 9 months) ● Filbinger : "organized by extremists"
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Backfire
● News drew nationwide attention & outrage ● Wyhl is not about "industrializing a farming community" – Governmental authorianism ● Police chief went public "government using his police for its own devices" ● Police learned "governor and economics minister on local utility's supervisory board"
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Negotiations
● A friendship house for 500 ● Volkschochule (adult education) ● "nuclear and lead, there is no life ahead" ● Camp drew international attention – Lovejoy's Nuclear War ● Education (a learning curve)
https://aadl.org/node/198688 Volkshochule
● Brought local experts together ● A group of researchers found Germany's Öko Institut (late 1970) ● One of first publication was Energiewende 1980
Concentration of knowledge
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Long process
● 31 Jan 1976 Offenburg Agreement ● Court process – Lower court in favor of protestors 1977 – TMI in 1979 (US) – Mannheim overruled the decision in 1982 ● Power demand remained flat ● State govt lost interest ● 1994 – project cancelled
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 To sum up
● There were other protests ● It was not primarily about nuclear ● "Wyhl was thus the beginning of the vast landscape of independent research institutes Germany now has" ● Turned former subjects into active citizens ● "40 million of the 80 million people in Germany are now energy experts" German Development Ministry
●
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Power Rebels of Schönau
From Chernobyl
● Population 2500 ● 1993, Church group 20 school children (Chernobyl victims) ● 1995 again (1 girl died of leukemia)
https://www.ews-schoenau.de/ews/international/ Chernobyl
● 26 April 1986 ● 29 April 1986 (Swedes detected) ● 1 May Labor day – Outdoor activities ● But because of radiation children sit at home
Ursula Sladek
● A Mother of 5, husband practitioner ● Broken leg, children stayed out longer than recommended ● They wanted to do something
Parents against Nuclear Power
● Wolf Dieter Drescher – "Who is worried about the future of their children after Chernobyl, who wants to do something and doesn't know what?" ● First step – Less power should be consumed
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 KWR
● Local utility ● 20 year concession from 1974 – One condition : close the small hydropower ● Paid 600,000 marks for the deal ● Still old school : economic growth could outstrip the increase in consumption
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Retards who deserved pity
● Parents explain their ideas about conserving energy ● Utility treated them like "retards who deserved pity" ● But they regrouped at Four lions hotel's restautant
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 1935 Energy Management Act
● They have to change it ● Parents against Nuclear-> Power Rebels ● June 1987 , they asked German govt to change it ● Nothing happened
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Power conservation competition
● They asked KWR to give handheld power meters kept in stock ● They were thrown out of building ● "If KWR had cooperated we would never have launched a bigger campaign"
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Competition
● 140 households took part ● Local shops offering discounts on efficient households ● "Make your relationship with your power meter a loving one. Visit every day" ● KWR CEO threatened to them
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 KWR strikes back
● Offers City officials to increase consession (Aug 1990) ● 5% ● Power rebels reacted by founding two companies – Distributed energy systems – To buy back the local grid
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Power rebels strikes back
● 28 Jan 1991 – the city council heard the Power Rebels ● Business plan for grid takeover – An engineer from Aachen: Wolfgang Zander – 500 page feasibility ● 7 June 1991 German weekly – "A village under tension"
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Taking back the grid
● Lost the initial vote ● Then another plebiscite ● Yays 729 to Nays 579 ● Economics Ministry had to confirm that the Power Rebels met the legal requirement
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Tax advisor
● Walter Boltz – tax advisor ● "They need me" ● With help they began to design their cooperative energy provider ● Nov 1995 – Cooperative EWS
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Price for the grid
● 8.7 million marks (25 Oct 1994) ● EWS calculated 3.9 million mark ● "I am a failure" -> "Ich bin ein Störfall" ● ads
Energy Democracy: Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables, Craig Morris , Arne Jungjohann, 2016 Ads
Questions
● barissanli.com ● @barissanli