Tag: Renewables

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Electric Avenue: Systems, Sufficiency, and European Sovereignty

tl;dr:  Europe’s agency hinges on becoming an Electrostate—electrified value chains, robust grids, high domestic electrification. Not more tech, but system design & sufficiency.

What an Electrostate Is

An Electrostate is not simply a country with many wind turbines and solar parks. It is a polity whose power rests on electrified value chains—from critical minerals and battery chemistry to power electronics, grids, software, and open standards—combined with high domestic electrification in mobility, heat, and industry.… Read more

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Underneath our skin: the new economy beyond growth

This is a very rough transcript of an interview done with Justin Ritchie and Seth Moser-Katz from the Extraenvironmentalist, a great “podcast, blog and video series that explores the mindset of an outsider looking in on Earth” – and a way of thinking as they proclaim. The original podcast from which this transcript has been produced (by myself, so all errors are exclusively my fault) can be found on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/extraenvironmentalist/episode-83-1-andr-reichel-are

 

André Reichel (AR): If we want to restrict global climate change to about 2C we need emissions reductions in the range of 8 to 10 % per year.… Read more

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Energy a-changing

The energy system we built over the last 100 years or so is in for a big change. In fact, the change looks close to a complete restart of the way we produce and distribute electricity for our everyday purposes. The obvious role model and primary example is Germany’s Energiewende, the transition of the entire German energy system away from coal and nuclear towards renewables. The nature of the Energiewende until now is that of a bottom-up, decentralized change strengthened by the German Renewable Energy Act set up in 2000.… Read more

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Nuclear Energy, Sustainable Energy?

Recently, German environmental minister, Norbert Röttgen, made some interesting remarks on the remaining operationg time of Germany’s nuclear power plants. After the Schröder-Fischer government neogiated a fade-out of nuclear power until 2022, the newly elected center-right government of Merkel-Westerwelle proposed an extension for nuclear industry between 10 and 20 years beyond that date. The argument was, that renewables needed that extra time to become a susbstantial part of German energy supply. Röttgen now made it clear, that nuclear energy’s time will be up when renewables will reach about a share of 40% in Germany’s energy supply.… Read more