Editorial September

Even in this current year, which has been dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, we still expect to see the development of important innovations for the energy transformation. As the Hamburg Renewable Energy Cluster (Cluster Erneuerbare Energien Hamburg), we will once again this year present the "German Renewables Award 2020" to outstanding individuals, innovative projects, products and exciting media reports about them. Unlike in other years, we are of course unable to welcome a large group of people to the award ceremony in Hamburg. Nevertheless, we are delighted that for the first time we can offer you the opportunity to be there live on 22 September to watch the online broadcast of this year's award, regardless of your location!

Another consequence of the pandemic: as the Hamburg Renewable Energy Cluster (EEHH-Cluster), we have been on a steep learning curve this year with regard to digital events and webinars. We have conducted around 20 small and large online events on specialist topics in the space of just a few months. In collaboration with our members, we have been able to demonstrate that the developments in the energy world are progressing rapidly – and that the north and the Hamburg metropolitan region are an important hotspot for these developments. We discovered one thing much to our surprise, which is that our geographical reach has increased as a result of the fact that it is easier for industry professionals or representatives of the trade press to participate online from Bavaria or the Ruhr area.

This September saw us celebrate our 10th anniversary as a cluster, which we managed even under pandemic conditions, with a summer party and the permitted maximum of 100 participants. The "Förderverein des Clusters Erneuerbare Energien Hamburg e.V." was founded on 29 September 2010. Despite our expectations of a different setting at the beginning of the year, it was very pleasing to look back on ten years of cluster development with these member representatives. This event highlighted that regardless of all the online alternatives, it is also important for people from the industry to get together so that technical, economic or other innovations can flourish. With this in mind, we look forward to the next ten years or more with a stable membership structure and all our cooperation partners and companions!