PHOTON International - The Photovoltaic Magazine

Huge potential for renewables in Germany

German Ministry of the Environment publishes study on expansion of renewable energies

By 2050, Germany can produce 65 percent of its electricity needs and 50 percent of its heating demands from renewable energies. At the same time, using the year 2000 as a reference point, greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by 75 percent. These are some of the results from a new study, Ecologically Optimal Expansion of Renewable Energies, which Federal Minister for the Environment Jürgen Trittin (Green Party) presented in mid-May in Berlin. The study was commissioned by the government and conducted by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Stuttgart, the Heidelberg-based Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU), and the Wuppertal-based Institute for Climate, Environment, and Energy (WI). It's part of the German government's Environment and Renewable Energies program. In four expansion scenarios, scientists calculate the renewable energy potentials for electricity and heat production, and to a lesser extent as a fuel supply. Economic and social criteria as well as the needs of nature conservation set the framework for the four theoretical scenarios.

The authors concluded that expansion, if it takes into consideration environmental and conservation needs, is both realizable and economically advantageous. »The study shows that neither environmental protection nor cost effectiveness can be used as an argument against renewable energies. Anyone who still tries to fabricate a contradiction between economy and ecology is stuck in the dark ages,« says Trittin.

To avoid unnecessary conflicts, the study recommends that strict nature conservation criteria be taken into account when expanding renewable energies. Only in this way can one prove that »renewable energies are the only means for environmentally sound energy production.« Hence, the authors have rather lukewarm feelings about PV systems on undeveloped areas. According to their calculations, at 105 TWh per year, the energy potential available within residential areas is so great that the need for systems on undeveloped areas is not necessary. For comparison: in 2003, PV power plants produced a total of 0.3 TWh in Germany.

For a summary of the study (in German), go to: www.bmu.de/files/nutzung_ee.pdf