VW plans battery cell production in Germany - media / Moor restoration
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung / Manager Magazin
The management of car maker Volkswagen will soon make a decision over which Asian partner it will build up a battery cell production with in Germany, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes, citing unnamed sources from within the company. A report in Manager Magazin said that a partnership with Korean battery producer SK Innovation was on the horizon. Another crucial element for establishing a battery cell industry in Germany is bringing together a consortium of producers, the article says. Plans for such a consortium will be presented in November; the German government plans to provide one billion euros as start-up financing, the article says.
Read the article in German here.
For background see this dossier on Germany’s car makers and the energy transition here, and the article Chinese-German battery cell deal key step for mobility transition.
Clean Energy Wire
The environment ministry wants to promote the restoration of moorlands in Germany, a press release said. Ninety percent of Germany’s moors are drained, making them into a source instead of a sink for CO2. “Only a wet moor is a good moor,” environment state secretary Jochen Flasbarth said at an event in Berlin. Since a majority of the moorlands are used for agriculture, finding ways to allow low-impact farming on restored moor soils is a way to cut emissions and increase biodiversity. Research at the Greifswald Moor Centrum on this subject is funded with 1.4 million euros, the ministry said.
Read the press release in German here.
Find a CLEW dossier on agriculture, moors and climate here.
Clean Energy Wire
Germany’s energy minister Peter Altmaier will invite businesses to an electricity price summit in January to discuss rising power prices for small and medium- sized companies, he announced this week. Industry association BDI said that rising power prices were posing problems to “all companies of all sizes”. The summit was coming too late, the BDI said.
Read the BDI press release in German here.
For background, read the CLEW factsheet How much does Germany’s energy transition cost?
Süddeutsche Zeitung
The problem with being in power for a long time is that it becomes possible to judge a politician by whether they fulfilled their promises, writes Cerstin Gammelin in an op-ed for Süddeutsche Zeitung. Angela Merkel in her 13th year as chancellor is experiencing this now: As an environment minister she occupied green issues and wanted to set strict climate targets. But now – because she wants her party to win the state elections in Hesse – emission limits for diesel cars are getting in her way. Merkel preaches environmental protection but she doesn’t enforce it, writes Gammelin. “Such inconsistency accelerates the loss of confidence with which the traditional people's parties in Germany have to struggle,” Gammelin says.
Read the op-ed in German here.
For background, read the factsheet The story of "Climate Chancellor" Angela Merkel.
German Association of Gas and Water (DVGW) / Ecofys
Employing power-to-gas technologies (PtG) help to achieve Germany’s 2050 climate targets in the most cost-efficient way, writes the German Association of Gas and Water (DVGW) in a press release. The association commissioned a meta-analysis by consultancy Ecofys, which examines ten studies and papers on the topic. The different scenarios all show that sector coupling technologies such as PtG will be necessary, but differ on when and in what form, writes Ecofys. The consultancy says that costs to establish and operate a PtG infrastructure vary a lot in the different studies. It adds that the biggest cost-saving potential of PtG is in the building sector. “In order to place the urgently needed sector coupling on a stable and affordable foundation, we now need corresponding technology and market launch programmes," said Timm Kehler, CEO of gas industry lobby organisation Zukunft ERDGAS, at the study presentation.
Find the press release in German here and the study in German here.
For background, read the CLEW factsheets Power-to-gas: Fix for all problems or simply too expensive?, and Sector coupling - Shaping an integrated renewable energy system, and the dossier The role of gas in Germany's energy transition.
Clean Energy Wire
The energy ministers of Turkey and Germany have agreed to cooperate more closely on the issues of renewable energies, energy efficiency, infrastructure, integrated energy (sector coupling) and regulation, their letter of intent signed at the second German-Turkish Energy Forum in Ankara states. Energy minister Peter Altmaier said both countries were pursuing a “greater independence from imports, greater security of supply and the creation of future-oriented jobs” which were all good arguments for an energy system transformation.
Read the press release in German here.
Find a CLEW factsheet on the integrated energy system here.
Equal Times
The last German hard coal mine will close in December 2018. Cristina Belda Font, writing for Equal Times, takes a closer look at the 50-year transformation that coal mining and energy industry has seen in the Ruhr region. Some mines are already used to test new technology, such as pumped-storage hydro power. But while the story of hard coal mining has ended, Germany still grapples with the issue of lignite (brown coal) mining and a high dependency on fossil fuels in the electricity sector, the author says.
Read the feature in English here.
Read a CLEW factsheet on coal in Germany’s here.
