To limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, the energy supply must be radically changed. There is no question that we need new technologies and effective laws to achieve this. But we rarely realize how deeply this transformation will affect our everyday lives. If we want to limit the further expansion of photovoltaic and wind power plants, we will have to drastically reduce energy use. Among other things, this may mean that driving and flying will no longer be possible to the same extent as they are today. However, the necessary transformation also brings opportunities, for example to make cities more livable.

What changes are most likely to come our way if climate policy is implemented consistently? How can and must we transform our daily lives to integrate new technologies and use energy and resources more efficiently? At the trialogue, stakeholders from politics & administration, business, organized civil society, science and the media exchanged ideas.

The press release on the trialogue can be found here.

You can find the report on the trialogue here.

The share of renewable energies in electricity generation has risen continuously in recent years. In order to be able to compensate for the volatile feed-in, large power plants will have to be operated flexibly in the future, there will be a need for long- and short-term storage and new models for more supply-oriented electricity consumption. In addition,_{CO2 emissions} must also be reduced in the heating and transport sectors. This can be achieved if renewably generated electricity is also used for heating and driving. However, our system has not been designed for this so far. The market design must be adapted.

How should the market design be structured with incentives for flexible generation and consumption, levies, charges and taxes to enable fair competition between the electricity, heating and transport sectors? What is the role of pricing_{CO2 emissions} in this context?

The scientists of the project "Energy Systems of the Future" discussed these and other questions with stakeholders from politics and administration, business and organized civil society at the Trialogue on October 23, 2018 in Berlin.

You can find the report on the trialogue here.

The energy system is becoming increasingly decentralized in many areas. In addition to the 100 power plants that used to supply Germany, many small producers have now emerged. Whether in the case of rooftop photovoltaic systems or wind turbines, the producers are mostly cooperatives or private individuals, so-called "prosumers". While some emphasize the new opportunities for participation with regard to this development, others point out the higher costs of a more decentralized energy system.

The questions of what our energy system should look like in 2050 and how developments in the energy system in a more decentralized or centralized direction – with a view to overall costs, acceptance or jobs – should be evaluated were discussed by experts from the Academy project "Energy Systems of the Future" together with stakeholders from politics and administration, business, and organized civil society at the ninth Trialogue on Energy Transition. The full-day dialogue event took place on May 28, 2018 at the Allianz Forum Berlin and was hosted by the Berlin Governance Platform.

The press release on the trialogue can be found here.

You can find the report on the trialogue here.

Biomass currently contributes more to energy supply in Germany than all other renewables combined, and currently provides heat and electricity as well as fuels. Many studies indicate that an energy transition without bioenergy would be much more difficult and expensive, as bioenergy can replace fossil fuels. However, this potential contribution to climate protection is offset by considerable risks from undesirable side effects of bioenergy use. If sustainability criteria are disregarded, the cultivation of energy crops causes greenhouse gases, has a negative impact on biodiversity and soil quality, and pollutes water bodies.

What contribution bioenergy can make to the future energy supply in Germany and what role bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (CCS) should play in climate protection were discussed by experts from the academy project "Energy Systems of the Future" together with stakeholders from politics and administration, business and organized civil society at the Trialogue on the Energy Transition organized by the Humboldt-Viadrina Governance Platform. The full-day dialogue event took place on February 23, 2018 at the Allianz Forum Berlin.

You can find the report on the trialogue here.

The energy system is becoming increasingly networked and digital. In addition to opportunities, this also entails risks. How quickly must the digital energy transition be driven forward in order to make good use of opportunities and prevent risks? How can critical energy infrastructures be redesigned to create a secure and smart energy system? Who should be involved and what new responsibilities will emerge?

Experts from the academy project "Energy Systems of the Future" discussed this together with stakeholders from politics and administration, business and organized civil society at the Trialogue on the Energy Transition, which was organized by the Humboldt-Viadrina Governance Platform. The all-day dialog event took place on December 14, 2017 at the Allianz Forum Berlin.

The press release on the trialogue can be found here.

You can find the report on the trialogue here.

With the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Climate Agreement, two important international sustainability and climate protection agreements were adopted in 2015. Their core goals are to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees in the long term and to make the world greenhouse gas emmission neutral in the second half of this century.

Germany and the European Union have ratified these goals. In order to achieve them, the European energy supply must be restructured jointly. But conflicts within the EU and between individual member states can make implementation difficult, for example if some EU countries continue to rely on fossil fuels in the long term. Does the European Union have sufficient energy policy powers to steer the transformation process and achieve the climate protection targets? Are the instruments and procedures provided for in the "Clean Energy for All Europeans" legislative package ("Winter Package") suitable for this purpose, and how can the tasks be distributed appropriately within the EU?

These questions are being investigated by a new working group of the "Energy Systems of the Future" project. At the trialogue "The Governance of the European Energy Union – between national energy strategies and Paris climate goals" on July 13, 2017 at the Allianz Forum in Berlin, ESYS experts exchanged views on this with representatives from politics, business and civil society.

You can find the report on the trialogue here.

People want to be mobile in the city, goods need to get from A to B. But a large proportion of the cars and trucks driving in our cities are still responsible for emissions that are harmful to the climate and health. To reduce emissions, there are a number of options and alternatives. How will we get around in cities in the future? What role will new technologies play? And how can we set the course for low-emission urban mobility despite numerous uncertainties?

With today's decisions, we are determining how the transport sector will develop in the coming decades. Many paths will be difficult to leave once we have committed ourselves to certain technologies. Urban traffic is a good example: electric cars and fuel cell vehicles require new infrastructures for electricity and hydrogen, respectively. A developed infrastructure of charging stations or hydrogen filling stations will not be easily exchanged for another, possibly new technology. What strategies can help us make forward-looking decisions in this or similar situations?

This was discussed by the "Path Dependencies" working group of the "Energy Systems of the Future" project with representatives from politics, business and organized civil society as part of the Trialogue.

The press release with results of the trialogue can be found here.

You can find the report on the trialogue here.

The promotion of renewable energies has led to an enormous multiplication of energy plants. Partly, the energy is used directly on site, partly it is fed into centrally controlled grids. The interplay of decentralized and centralized elements in the energy system was the topic of the third trialogue "Energiewende = (de)central?" of the HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA Governance Platform and the academy project "Energy Systems of the Future" (ESYS) on December 4 in Berlin.

In the course of the discussion, some definitional inaccuracies were clarified: renewable is not to be equated with decentralized. After all, a spatially focused expansion of wind turbines, as in the offshore sector, is just as centralized as the construction of a conventional large-scale power plant. Likewise, a decentralized expansion of renewable energies does not automatically mean more citizen participation.

There was agreement that the juxtaposition of the terms centralized and decentralized is not very useful. Instead, the implications of certain decisions on factors such as the diversity of actors, the structure of ownership and the need for grid expansion must be examined specifically in each case. As expected, actors placed varying degrees of weight on the extent to which actor diversity is necessary for the successful implementation of the energy transition.

In the afternoon workshops, aspects were formulated that should be considered in scientific research on (de)centralization in the energy system: thus, the importance and requirements for scenarios were discussed and potentials for mobilizing citizen engagement were identified.

You can find the press release for the event here.

The article "No fear of the energy transition" by one of our participants, Fritz Vorholz (Die ZEIT), can be found here.

You can find the report on the trialogue here.