What are the building blocks of the energy transition? How does it affect the north-west region? To what extent does it burden citizens? "Energy transition - the greatest challenge of the 21st century" is the title of a public panel discussion with experts who will address these questions.
The term "energy transition" is often used. Even and especially now, before the reform of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). Economics and Energy Minister Sigmar Gabriel wants to implement it by 1 August. And thus advance the turnaround that is to be realised in 2050. By then, most of the electricity in Germany will come from renewable energies: wind, water, sun or biomass. But what exactly are the building blocks and goals of the transition? How will it affect the north-west region? What does it cost and: To what extent does it burden citizens? "Energy transition - the greatest challenge of the 21st century" is the title of a public panel discussion with experts who will address these questions.
It is an explosive topic. Positions and facts are currently contradictory. For example, the share of renewable energies in electricity production is constantly increasing and all parties in the Bundestag have committed themselves to climate protection. And yet energy generation from lignite is currently booming and CO2 emissions are rising. Just one inconsistency in a highly complex political field and a challenge for the panellists to discuss: what are their predictions for the success of the "energy transition project"?
They are very familiar with the subject matter. For example, Prof Dr Claudia Kemfert from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). She will give a keynote speech and then join the panel discussion. There she will meet Lower Saxony's Environment Minister Stefan Wenzel, the President of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, Prof Dr Uwe Schneidewind, the CEO of EWE AG, Dr Werner Brinker, and Dr Klaus Meier, founder of wpd AG in Bremen. The moderator is Ronny Meyer, Managing Director of WAB Windenergie-Agentur in Bremerhaven (see below for information on the experts).
It is no coincidence that the CVs of almost all the panellists have links to the university - whether as a student (Ronny Meyer), junior professor (Claudia Kemfert), Chairman of the University Council (Werner Brinker) or even as President (Uwe Schneidewind). The topic has grown together with the university: as early as the 1970s, scientists at the university were pioneering energy and environmental research - when photovoltaic systems and offshore wind turbines were still visions of the future. In the meantime, these issues have been widely discussed in society. It remains to be seen how the panel discussion will contribute to their clarification.
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BACKGROUND
The panel discussion "Energy transition - the greatest challenge of the 21st century" is part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the University of Oldenburg. It will take place on Friday evening, 21 March, in the Weser-Ems-Halle Oldenburg. The event is being organised by the University of Oldenburg and Forwind, while Bremer Landesbank is supporting the discussion exclusively as a partner of the "40 Years of the University of Oldenburg" project. The event is also part of the supporting programme of zukunftsenergien nordwest, Germany's largest job and education fair for renewable energies, which takes place on 21 and 22 March in the Weser-Ems-Halle.
THE PANELLISTS
DR. WERNER BRINKER
Werner Brinker has been a member of the Board of Management of EWE AG since 1996 and Chair since 1998. He can look back on more than 30 years of experience in the energy industry. He began his academic appointment at EWE in 1978 before moving to PreussenElektra AG (now E.ON Energie AG) in Hanover. Brinker returned to EWE AG in 1996 and took over the position of Chief Technical Officer. Brinker has been actively involved in the expansion of renewable energies - especially offshore. From 2003 to 2013, he was Chairman of the University Council at the University of Oldenburg.
PROF. DR. CLAUDIA KEMFERT
Claudia Kemfert is an expert on energy and sustainability issues. She has headed the Energy, Transport and Environment Department at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin since 2004 and has been Professor of Energy Economics and Sustainability at the Hertie School of Governance since 2009. She studied and gained her doctorate at the University of Oldenburg before heading a research group as a junior professor for four years. In 2004, she was appointed to the DIW with a professorship in environmental economics at Berlin's Humboldt University.
DR. KLAUS MEIER
As a trained lawyer, Klaus Meier was already advising farmers on the construction of individual wind turbines in the early 1990s. In 1996, he founded wpd GmbH in Bremen with the aim of planning wind farms in Germany. In 2001, the company was converted into a public limited company. Meier moved to the Supervisory Board in 2009. Today, wpd is the largest German onshore wind farm operator and one of the leading developers of offshore wind farms. Around 860 employees work nationally and internationally on the expansion of renewable energies.
RONNY MEYER
Ronny Meyer is Managing Director of the wind energy agency WAB and its subsidiary for innovation germanwind GmbH. He previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group in the energy sector, specialising in renewable energies. He began his academic appointment as a project leader for research and development in a small wind energy consultancy. There he led projects on the integration of wind energy into the electricity grid and developed software for the energy industry, among other things. Ronny Meyer studied physics at the University of Oldenburg.
PROF. DR. UWE SCHNEIDEWIND
Uwe Schneidewind has been President and Scientific Director of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy - one of the leading sustainability think tanks in Germany - since 2010. Schneidewind began his academic appointment in the field of strategic environmental management consulting at Roland Berger & Partner in Düsseldorf. He then worked as a project leader at the Institute for Economics and Ecology at the University of St. Gallen, where he completed his doctorate and habilitation. In 1997, he was appointed to the professorship for "Business Administration, in particular Production Management and the Environment" at the University of Oldenburg. Schneidewind was President of the University of Oldenburg from 2004 to 2008.
STEFAN WENZEL
Stefan Wenzel has been Lower Saxony's Minister for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection since 2013. In 1998, he became a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament in the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen parliamentary group, of which he was Chair from 2004 to 2013. Wenzel studied agricultural economics at the University of Göttingen. During a one-year stay in South America, he worked in an SOS Children's Village and a co-operative business start-up project, among other things. For ten years, he was a partner in a wholesale and retail business for organically grown wine. Wenzel was active in youth work and anti-nuclear initiatives for many years.