Energy Democracy

Craig   Morris • Arne   Jungjohann

Energy Democracy Germany’s Energiewende to Renewables

ISBN 978-3-319-31890-5 ISBN 978-3-319-31891-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31891-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016945578

© Th e Editor(s) (if applicable) and Th e Author(s) 2016 Th is work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and trans-mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Th e use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Th e publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Cover illustration: © VPC Travel Photo / Alamy Stock Photo

Printed on acid-free paper

Th is Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature Th e registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland

Craig   Morris Petite Planète, Freiburg and Berlin , Germany

Arne   Jungjohann Stuttgart , Germany

For Phillip and Pascale

vii

Energy democracy , n. [ɛnərdʒi dɪmɑkrəsi] 1) when citizens and communities can make their own energy, even when it hurts energy corporations fi nancially; 2) something currently mainly pursued in

Denmark and Germany but that can spread around the world during the current window of opportunity; 3) the most often overlooked benefi t of

distributed renewables in the fi ght against climate change; 4) something to fi ght for as the path to better quality of life with stronger communities and

better personal relationships.

ix

Th is book is a history of Germany’s energy transition—its Energiewende. It is not the history of the Energiewende. A book of this length couldn’t be defi nitive or exhaustive. On the other hand, most international readers—and, no doubt, numerous Germans—who assume that the Energiewende started in 2011 after the nuclear accident in Fukushima are likely to be surprised to hear how old the grassroots movement is.

Since both of us have spent at least the past decade communicating German energy and climate policymaking for the international commu-nity, we were struck by the awkward perception of the Energiewende after Fukushima. Following the nuclear phaseout in 2011, the Energiewende drew attention around the world for being allegedly exceptional with its move from nuclear power to wind and solar. Yet, Germany is not excep-tional for any of this. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, and Switzerland all have nuclear phaseout plans (some already completed), and France aims to reduce its reliance on nuclear. Th e rest of Europe either has no nuclear reactors or faces an unplanned phaseout as old plants reach the end of their lifetimes and country after country fails to build new reactors.

Germany isn’t exceptional for wind or solar either. Italy and Greece have a higher share of solar power on their grids; China has more installed. Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Romania, and Lithuania have a higher or similar share of wind power. And China and the US have more installed.

Preface

x Preface

Th e Energiewende is nonetheless exceptional in one way too often overlooked. Apart from Denmark and, more recently, Scotland, Germany is the only country in the world where the switch to renew-ables is a switch to energy democracy. We wanted to remedy that over-sight with this book.

Morris is an American writer based in Germany; Jungjohann, a for-mer Washington-based policy expert fostering transatlantic cooperation on energy and climate matters. As contributing editor of Renewables International , Morris suddenly found himself thrust into the role of explaining the Energiewende in English in the wake of Fukushima, when few journalists working in English knew the full history. In 2012, we then joined forces to found the website EnergyTransition.de, fi rst with an e-book and later with a blog, to help fi ll the gap. We are both often asked why a transition to renewables largely in the hands of citizens has been possible in Germany but not, say, in the US and the UK (at least not up to now).

With his years of experience in the Deutscher Bundestag, Jungjohann brought numerous insider stories and interview contacts to the table. Morris, in return, personally knew many of the people from Wyhl to Schönau—arguably, the region that gave birth to the Energiewende—because he had lived in the area since 1992. An American–German duo was also interesting given the topic and target audience. Perhaps ironi-cally, Jungjohann sometimes felt uncomfortable with Morris’s praise of Germany and criticism of the US, while Morris could not always agree with Jungjohann’s praise of the US or criticism of Germany. Each author probably expects more of his home country than is reasonable. Th e result is a more balanced book than either author would have writ-ten alone.

Several of the chapters are based heavily on individual books, as our footnotes reveal. Readers may wonder why we did not use broader sources of information. Th ey certainly exist: Paul Gipe has produced impressive work on the history of wind power, even with a focus on Germany; John Perlin has covered the history of solar masterfully. Gabrielle Hecht has also written authoritatively on the history of nuclear in France, and we do not cite her in our comparison either.

Preface xi

Th e reason is that all these books are already available in English. In using books only available in German and French, we aimed to at least make the gist of this untranslated literature accessible to a wider audi-ence. It should be noted that the general fi ndings and conclusions in the literature largely overlap; Hecht and Topçu come to very much the same conclusions about nuclear France, as do Gipe, Oelker, and Lobe for wind or Perlin and Janzing for solar. Later chapters also rely heavily on the fantastic German news archive at Energie-Chronik.de run by German journalist Udo Leuschner. As we move closer to the future, Morris’s own online publications are referenced more frequently, as is our collaboration at EnergyTransition.de.

Our intent is to show international readers how German citizens got their government behind a policy that the public wanted. As such, our story downplays numerous aspects important for the German energy sec-tor’s history, but not necessarily for the energy transition as a grassroots movement. One example is the transformation of the energy sector in the former East Germany after the Fall of the Wall, which this book does not deal with in depth.

For the sake of brevity, this book does not tell the tale of every part of the grassroots movement worth mentioning either. For instance, Gorleben—the proposed site of (West) Germany’s nuclear waste reposi-tory—played a huge role in the anti-nuclear movement; it thus deserves its own subchapter, which we unfortunately did not have space for.

Furthermore, in addition to the numerous people mentioned briefl y, there were also countless environmental and renewable energy campaigns and trade shows driven by citizens. Numerous state and local govern-ments also passed ambitious legislation and set up Energy Agencies, which have done excellent work in helping the public implement not only renewable energy technology, but also effi ciency. Not all these help-ful participants could be mentioned.

Many people helped shape this book. Th e authors would like to thank those who provided wise counsel and encouraging feedback at diff er-ent stages of the project: energy analyst Toby Couture, journalist Osha Davidson, energy policy expert Jose Etcheverry, John Farrell of the ILSR, WWEA executive director Stefan Gsänger, Paul Gunther of Beyond

xii Preface

Nuclear, Bastian Hermisson of the Washington offi ce of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, author Mark Hertsgaard, Gisa Holzhausen of the GIZ, Tetsunari Iida of ISEP, Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic Institute, journalist Bernward Janzing, Anna Leidreiter of the World Future Council, Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, Georg Maue of the German Embassy Washington DC, Daniel Lerch of the Post Carbon Institute, energy analyst Hugo Lukas, journalist Gregory McDonald, English lin-guist Paul McPherron, Phyllis McPherron, Michael Mehling of MIT, Jennifer Morgan of Greenpeace International, Diane Moss of the 100% Renewables Institute, Klaus Müschen of the German Environmental Agency (UBA), Christ Nelder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, energy analyst Uwe Nestle, Alan Nogee of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Alexander Ochs of the Worldwatch Institute, Sara Peach of University of North Carolina, Josef Pesch of EWS, energy analyst Raff aele Piria, Anya Schoolman of the Committee Power Network, Joachim Seel of UC Berkeley, Dave Toke of the University of Aberdeen, energy analyst Sezin Topçu, energy analyst Dieter Seifried, Dirk Vansintjan of REscoop, for-mer Lead Mission Operations Engineer at SpaceX Daniel Villani, and retired EU offi cial James Wimberley. Arne’s special thanks go to Verena for covering his back in an exciting and demanding time with a young family. We also thank our editors from Palgrave Macmillan, Rachael Ballard and Chloe Fitzsimmons, and Natascha Spörle for her support for comments and endnotes. Graphics for this book are available at www.EnergiewendeBook.de . Th e authors alone are solely responsible for any errors or omissions.

Finally, Paul Gipe deserves special recognition. In the 1970s, he began his career travelling around the mid-West collecting old wind power equipment from farmers. When California’s wind boom happened in the early 1980s, he was there—and when it collapsed. In the 1990s, he became a rare US expert on Danish and German energy policy.

When the fi rst wind turbines in the US started breaking in the 1990s, he called for them to be dismantled (as in Denmark and Germany) to keep America beautiful (many are still standing today). In 2008, when Ontario passed its Green Energy Act, Gipe was executive director of a Canadian NGO explaining to the Province’s politicians

Preface xiii

what community energy is. In 2012, he told Jungjohann and Morris that they should meet.

Th is book is written in the spirit of everything Gipe has represented for the past 40 years: community empowerment and renewable energy—in other words, energy democracy. Th e authors continue to carry Paul’s torch as he transitions to his own well-deserved (semi-)retirement.

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1 Energiewende: Th e Solution to More Problems Th an Climate Change 1 No Government Master Plan 3 Fukushima Draws International Attention to the Energiewende 6 New Players Are Needed 9 What Lessons Can We Draw From the Energiewende? 13

2 Th e Birth of a Movement: 1970s Protests for Democracy in Wyhl 15 Breisach—Th e First Site Proposed 16 A Franco–German Alliance 18 Protests Turn Violent 22 Negotiations Replace Violence 27 Th e Violent Confl ict Continues in Brokdorf and Elsewhere 31 Citizens Fighting an Authoritarian Government 33

3 Fledgling Wind Power: Th e Folly of Innovation Without Deployment 37 Early German Wind Power Generators 39 Growian—A Wind Turbine Made Big to Fail 42

Contents

xvi Contents

Inspiration from Denmark 46 Where Does Innovation Come from? 47

4 German Wind Pioneers Fighting Power Monopolies in the 1980s 53 How German Power Providers Became Monopolies 59 Haggling with Utilities Over Grid Connections 61 Enercon’s Breakthrough 65 Early Wind Power in Eastern Germany 68

5 Th e Power Rebels of Schönau 73 Radiation from Chernobyl Reaches the Black Forest 74 “Treated Like Retards Who Deserved Pity” 76 Countering Legal Challenges with Increasing Expertise 78 Taking Back the Grid 81 Th e Winding Road to Victory 83 How “I Am a Failure” Became a Winning Slogan 86 Waiting for Liberalization Was Not an Option 90

6 Renewable Energy in Conservative Communities 95 Why Sometimes 100 Percent Renewables Is Not Enough 98 So What Is “Bürgerenergie”? 101 Citizen Participation Raises Acceptance 104 Vauban and Freiamt: Energy Democracy in Practice 106 Communities—Where Conservatives and Conservationists Agree 110 Conservatives Are Not Libertarians 113 German Green Conservativism 117 Classical Conservatives Are Reasonable 119

7 Th e 1990s: Laying the Foundations for the Energiewende 123 An Unlikely Coalition of Parliamentary Backbenchers 124 Demanding Something Th at Utilities Had All Along 128

Contents xvii

Th e Wild East: Reunifi cation Opens the Former GDR to Western Utilities 130 Liberalizing European Energy Markets 133 Th e Energy Consensus Talks Mark the Beginnings of the Nuclear Phaseout 138 Th e Forgotten (and Missed) National Climate Target 142 Th e Big Players Still Doubt Solar 145 Solar Startups Get Going 148 Utilities Fighting the Rise of Wind Power in Court 153 Paralysis Before 1998 Elections 158

8 Green Capitalism Made in Germany 161 Th e Chicago School and the Freiburg School 163 How Feed-in Tariff s Bring Costs Down 167 How Feed-in Tariff s Create New Markets 174 Corporate Off shore Wind, Community Onshore Wind 178 Overpaying for Solar (Temporarily) 181 Net Metering, Tax Incentives, and Other Policy Options 182 Adam Smith’s Relevance Today 189 German Social Market Economics as Fettered Capitalism 194

9 Th e Red–Green Revolution (1998–2005) 197 Green Failures that Weren’t 198 Th e Nuclear Phaseout of 2002 201 Competition Leads to Concentration 205 Th e Renewable Energy Act of 2000 Starts the Renewable Energy Boom 212 A War, a Flood, and a Bumbling Bavarian Keep the Energiewende Going 218 Th e 2004 EEG 220 Th e Early Elections of 2005 223

10 Healthy Democracy: Key to the Energiewende’s Success 227 Th e International Crisis of Democracy 229 Keeping Money Out of Politics and Public Debate 233

xviii Contents

Money in the Media 236 “Ministers Come and Go, But the Administration Stays” 240 Ministries and Continuity 244 Cooperative Federalism 247

11 Utilities Bet on Gas and Coal and Renewables Boom (2005–2011) 251 Delaying Nuclear Plant Shutdowns 253 Th e Rollout of Emissions Trading 257 Th e Boom in Coal Plant Construction 261 Protests Grow Against Coal 265 Renewable Energy Becomes Unstoppable 268 Amendments to the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) of 2009 275 2009 Elections and the Nuclear Phaseout 278 Wheeling and Dealing in the Power Sector 289 Few Changes for Renewables 291 Th e Renewable Energy Surcharge Starts to Skyrocket 294

12 From Meitner to Merkel: A History of German Nuclear Power 299 Th e Initial Years of Atomic Hype 302 Th e Nuclear Race Begins 307 A Range of Nuclear Design Options 310 Th e Nuclear Reactor Design Most Similar to Coal Plants Wins 311 Surging Costs—Wall Street, Not the Greens, Killed Nuclear 314 A Long Process of Eroding Public Faith in the Nuclear Complex Begins 318 A Nuclear Convoy—Attempts to Standardize Nuclear Plant Design 322 Nuclear France: Silencing Critics with Brute Force and Pink Slips 325 Chernobyl Cloud Stops at French Border 330 A Focus on Risks—Nuclear in Post-Chernobyl Germany 333 Nuclear vs. Democracy 336

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13 Merkel Takes Ownership of the Energiewende (2011–Today) 341 Overcapacity Instead of Blackouts 341 Th e Transdisciplinary Learning Curve 343 Myth-Busting Post-Fukushima 347 Th e Utility Death Spiral 353 Th e Emergence of “Energy Poverty” in the Elections of 2013 360 Pushing Back the People: EEG Amendments of 2014 370

14 Will the Energiewende Succeed? 379 Energiewende Studies from the 1980s: A Clear Political Agenda 382 Th e Crucial Role of Citizens and Communities 389 Th e Two Camps Within the Energiewende Today 391 Th ree Energiewende Scenarios for 2050 398 “Th e Costs of the Energiewende” (ISE) 400 “Power Reliability in the Energiewende” (IWES) 403 “Space Requirements for the Energiewende” (BBR) 404 What Is Needed to Shift to a Renewable Energy Economy? 405 Energy Democracy at the Crossroads 409

15 Act Now or Be Left Out 413

Index 421

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Table 14.1 Installed capacity needed in 2050 in GW for percent share of renewables in power generation 401

Table 14.2 Installed capacity in GW required for various levels of carbon emission reductions by 2050 402

List of Tables

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Box 10.1 “Voter suppression” and “gerrymandering”: two terms that don’t exist in German 234

Box 11.1 Emissions trading and renewables 259Box 11.2 Misleading focus on the Big 270Box 13.1 Mittelstand , the German dream 358Box 15.1 Bill of Rights for the Energy Transition 418

List of Boxes