Editorial December

While discussions took place at the climate change conference in Katowice about how climate change can be limited worldwide, many energy experts in Germany used the time before Christmas to reflect or speculate on the future of climate protection and energy policy in Germany in 2019. The coalition agreement of the Federal Government from March included an ambitious outlook for renewables and sector coupling in Germany. However, as the end of the year approached, it became clear that many important and necessary decisions must still be taken in German energy policy. A long-term path for the expansion of renewable energy has not yet been specified, and many individual regulations have to be addressed. The international ranking of German energy policy worsened in 2018. Many international visitors to the EEHH Cluster are surprised and occasionally worried about the direction of German energy policy.

In recent decades, the energy system has already been confronted with difficult changes in the regulatory system. As an EEHH Cluster, we remain optimistic that the necessary transition will take place step-by-step, as otherwise the expansion of renewable energies and their use for mobility and heat supply would be a waste of time. In 2018, we observed that many technical building blocks for the continuation of the energy transition are market-ready and that extraordinarily innovative approaches are currently being developed for the energy markets in Germany and worldwide. We have also noted that renewable energy markets around the globe are developing very dynamically: In many countries, renewables not only contribute to a sustainable energy supply, but have also become unbeatably affordable.

Against this backdrop, we wish you a restful and peaceful Christmas and a happy New Year! Together with our member network, we look forward to making a significant contribution to the further development of our sustainable energy supply in 2019.