“No more cherry picking”

Despite a somewhat successful shift to more renewable sources in the power sector, Germany’s energy transition is making little to zero progress in the transportation and heating sectors, Joachim Wille writes for Frankfurter Rundschau. “The gradual nuclear phase-out and the rapid green energy expansion have been a herculean task but were possible without a real change of systems,” Wille writes. The Energiewende is now entering “the second, and far more difficult stage,” he says. Wille writes that covering transport and heating with renewable power (termed sector coupling) will double the country’s power demand, requiring increased energy efficiency and an end to “cherry picking” - meaning people will have to accept changes to their everyday lives if they truly want Energiewende to happen.

For background, see the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and efficiency.