Energy transition monitoring: The five lessons that Katherina Reiche wants to misunderstand
Wolfram Axthelm, Managing Director of the German Wind Energy Association (BWE), called the German Federal Association of Wind Energy (BWE)'s new analysis on the energy transition a "master's study with a very narrow scope of work" on Wednesday in Husum. At a hastily convened political information reception at the BWE booth at the Husum Wind industry show, Axthelm explained why the so-called energy transition monitoring project presented by Federal Energy Minister Katherina Reiche on Monday could be helpful for the energy transition. The so-called energy transition monitoring project, commissioned from Berlin by the BET and ETI institutes, is a "substantial piece of work," he said. Its 260 pages provide useful results for the advancement of the energy transition.
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Axthelm thus contradicted the restrictions on the energy transition now suggested by Energy Minister Reiche. Following the presentation of the monitoring, Reiche presented ten possible action guidelines for her ministry, derived from them. This ten-point plan contains several provisions that would slow the energy transition, not least of which is a short-term reduction in the expansion of renewable energy plants.
The new energy policy direction of the federal government, as suggested by Reiche, is not supported by the monitoring results. Even under the constraints of a "very narrow scope of work" regarding what they were permitted to investigate and what they were not permitted to investigate, the commissioned institutes "proceeded objectively," Axthelm said. Their analysis is comparable to the opening assessment of Katherina Reiche's predecessor, Robert Habeck. Habeck had once commissioned such a monitoring report as the basis for his subsequent energy transition funding legislation, the BWE head recalled.
Axthelm highlighted five findings from the energy transition monitoring that contradict the minister's conclusions that slow down the energy transition:
1. The monitoring paper assumes an electricity demand of 600 to 700 terawatt hours (TWh), at least 50 TWh lower than the previously assumed 750 TWh of nationwide electricity consumption. This expected electricity consumption resulted in the current annual tender volumes for the construction of new wind farms and photovoltaic systems, introduced by then-Minister Habeck. However, when presenting the monitoring results, the authors emphasized that policymakers should now orient themselves toward the upper end of the estimated consumption. Their statement thus contradicts the minister's statement, who had stated that she would be orienting herself toward the lower end of the estimate, at around 600 TWh.
2. The digitalization of power grids, as called for in the energy transition monitoring, goes far beyond Minister Reiche's conclusion of now pushing ahead with the deployment of smart meters. Smart meters are intended to help households and businesses concentrate the use of their electricity-consuming devices during periods of high electricity generation from wind power and photovoltaics (PV). This should bring production and consumption into balance.
3. The "strained supply chains" cited in the monitoring report as cost drivers can be eased through greater harmonization between grid operators. Grid expansion is becoming so expensive and slowing down not least because 790 grid operators in Germany each have their own technical specifications for grid connections, for example, for renewable energy systems. Such specifications, even down to the color of connecting cables, prevent standardization of grid technology and thus effective price reductions by grid technology suppliers. However, this standardization is the decisive measure for accelerating grid expansion – and contradicts the minister's opposite approach of reducing wind farm and PV system expansion in line with the slowed grid expansion.
4. The scenario shows that photovoltaics may not meet expansion expectations, which would require more wind power expansion, which the Minister did not mention.
5. Regarding the flexibility of electricity generation through the addition of storage facilities or hydrogen electrolyzers, as called for in the monitoring report of the two institutes, Reiche fails to make the corresponding recommendations. Storage facilities and electrolyzers are known to stabilize electricity feed-in and simultaneously or simultaneously convert surplus green electricity into hydrogen. The emission-free energy carrier green hydrogen, which does not release greenhouse gases even when used as a fuel, can replace fossil fuels as a fuel or process material in non-electrified energy consumption sectors such as road transport or industrial processes. However, more storage facilities and more electrolyzers, in turn, increase electricity demand and thus the need for renewable energy expansion.
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