Conceptualizing a policy as broad and ambitious asEnergiewende – Germany’s goal to transition nearly 100 percent of its electricity supply to renewable energy by 2050 – is one thing. Implementing it is another thing entirely. For this, ‘good governance’ is required – or as the Hertie School defines it: “an effective, efficient, and reliable set… Keep reading →
UN negotiators are meeting in Lima, Peru to construct a draft climate change mitigation agreement that will be finalized over the next year with the goal of signing it in Paris in 2015. The plan is to allow each country to develop a greenhouse gas emissions reduction strategy that can be realistically achieved. “But while… Keep reading →
As the recent midterm elections have thrust American politics to the media’s forefront, battles for political power are fresh in our minds. While Democrats and Republicans are not the contestants in governments outside of the U.S., struggle for power among groups whose ideals clash are the bedrock of political systems everywhere, including Germany, where politics… Keep reading →
Marcellus shale gas producer Range Resources reported record production of 1.2 billion cubic feet per day equivalent of natural gas, but getting that gas to higher-value markets is proving a bigger challenge than producing it. “Executives quoted forecasts showing that between mid-2015 and 2018, pipeline companies are expected to add 34 Bcf/d of midstream capacity.… Keep reading →
Germany has put itself on the world map in the past decade as an early adopter of energy generation from renewable sources. In 2013, 25% of the country’s energy came from renewable sources – the highest percentage in the world. By 2050, as part of the country’s Energiewende (or “energy transition”), Germany expects this number… Keep reading →
Since 2004, the year of the first major revision of Germany’s Renewable Energy Act (EEG), the country has added at least 35 gigawatts (GW) of solar and 35 GW of wind to its electric grid – enough to offset upwards of 35 coal plants. What’s more impressive is during the first half of 2014, close to 29 percent of Germany’s… Keep reading →
Europe’s biggest economy marches towards a greener future. Aug 18 was a Sunday like any other in Germany. At 2 pm, the country’s renewable generation capacity peaked at 41 GW while demand was around 53.5 GW – meaning that renewables accounted for roughly 75% of generation capacity, a new record for Europe’s biggest economy. At… Keep reading →
The US Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has recently released a report – prepared by the Brattle Group – on how Germany’s policies to support solar PV have made the country a world leader in deploying solar PV over the last decade. Most recent data from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) show… Keep reading →
The German government is providing the country’s largest utility E.ON loans to help competitively bid for global LNG supply as Berlin seeks to diversify gas import sources away from Russia. The loans strengthen E.ON’s credit rating and help the company compete with government-backed companies that LNG suppliers favor. “Those guarantees have in the past been… Keep reading →
Last week, the US and the EU hit Russia with a new sanctions regime in order to punish its continued meddling in destabilizing Eastern Ukraine. The economic restrictions are dubbed ‘Stage Three’ sanctions, indicating the increased level of severity meant to further ratchet up costs to the Russian economy. The sanctions now target Russian banking,… Keep reading →
