Headline: Energy Transitions and Societal Change - News

Germany and Israel are pursuing ambitious goals in the expansion of renewable energies and the development of innovative technologies. A new fellowship programme aims to foster a lively exchange of ideas among professionals in both countries.

People are often apprehensive when they hear about plans to build a wind farm in their locality. They wonder how it will change the landscape. And whether the noise of the rotor blades will get on their nerves. People need information about the planned changes, but their direct involvement in the decision-making process is also important, because the expansion of wind energy depends on public acceptance. The Fachagentur Windenergie an Land and the IASS invited representatives from politics, the energy sector, and civil society to participate in the 3rd Workshop on Public Participation in the Development of Wind Farms on 15 and 16 January.

A new technology developed in a joint research project by scientists at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) promises to provide energy from natural gas without producing harmful CO2 emissions. The process converts natural gas, which consists primarily of methane, into hydrogen and solid carbon. The researchers have been recognized for their work with the Innovation Award of the German Gas Industry.

The days of Germany’s lignite-mining industry are numbered, that much is clear. The Coal Commission appointed by the Federal Government now has the job of planning how exactly the phaseout will proceed. One issue that is often overlooked in this context is the question of how the rehabilitation of former coal-mining sites is to be financed. A new IASS Discussion Paper examines the risks inherent in the existing financing practice and makes concrete proposals for changes.

A small footprint, more capacity and no losses - these are the main advantages of superconducting links for electricity transmission compared to conventional solutions. But how far is this new technology from deployment? Experts from the energy sector discussed the hurdles and chances at the final conference of the EU project Best Paths in Brussels.

Together with transmission system operators, partners from industry and science presented the results of ground-breaking research on a superconducting cable system at an international workshop on 5 July in La Spezia, Italy.

On 27 June the Federal Cabinet gave its stamp of approval to the 6th Energiewende Monitoring Report submitted by Economic Affairs Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU). In a statement on the report, the independent expert commission charged with observing the monitoring process has for the first time compiled indicators on public acceptance, drawing on the Social Sustainability Barometer for the German Energiewende. The Barometer, which monitors the social dimensions of the energy transition, was prepared for the first time in 2017 by the IASS in the context of the dynamis partnership.

The region of Lusatia in Eastern Germany is experiencing a structural transformation due to the dwindling significance of lignite. In a new research project, the IASS will investigate the changes taking place there. Karl Eugen Huthmacher from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and IASS Scientific Director Patrizia Nanz presented the project at the Lusatia Dialogue on 25 June.

The international energy transition is already delivering numerous benefits, but it is also creating new inequalities. The risks posed by this transformation will impact especially on developing countries, which lack access to technologies and capital. What, then, can be done to ensure that these countries too can make the transition to a low-carbon economy? This question is the focus of a new project that will study the systemic impacts of the global energy transition.

What do citizens in France and Germany see as the key criteria for a fair energy transition? The Heinrich Böll Foundation France and the IASS presented two studies to 50 stakeholders from the policy community, business, science and civil society at an event in Brussels.

The Kopernikus projects present their research findings on the German Energiewende at the world’s largest academic conference in Austin.

To transport electricity effectively, a superconductor has to be inside an extremely well-insulated tube with an interior temperature of -200°C. Researchers at the IASS, the ESPCI engineering college in Paris, and French cable manufacturer Nexans have now developed a novel form of insulation that is compatible with the low temperatures and the high operating voltage of 320 kilovolts.