Appeal for a grass roots energy transition

GERMANY: Messe Husum organised a press conference in Kiel on the subject of the energy transition at local level. Speakers included Schleswig-Holstein’s energy transition minister Dr Robert Habeck, Husum’s trade fair boss Peter Becker, the spokesman of the German Small Wind Turbine Association Roger Schneider and the marketing director of Energie aus Wind und Sonne GmbH, Stefan Ebert.

“The energy transition is a project whose success is dependent on private and local initiatives,” said Becker. “Municipalities and local authorities are increasingly relying on energy supply and production using renewable sources, as well as on energy saving, as can be seen from the exhibitors at New Energy Husum.” The leading renewable energy trade fair is being held in Husum for the ninth time, from 21-24 March.

Private consumption pays off
“We want to produce three times as much electricity from renewable sources as we need in Schleswig-Holstein by 2020,” added Dr Habeck. The energy transition minister called upon local authorities and private individuals to achieve this goal together. “We have to save electricity, insulate houses and build wind farms on the small as well as the large scale.”

Another important pillar of the energy transition besides wind power is solar energy. If you use the electricity yourself, you can save or cut the costs for domestic electricity, grid expansion and the renewables levy (EEG-Umlage).

“Despite the massive cuts in feed-in payments, private and commercial photovoltaic plants are still profitable, because the increasing electricity prices of the main power companies make solar power an attractive alternative. This is why there is a focus on power management at storage systems at New Energy Husum,” said Ebert.

The same goes for the small wind turbines. Schneider anticipates that the amortisation period can be reduced to as much as a third when you use the wind power yourself. “A one-family home can use 20 to 60 per cent of the wind power yield itself, and sell the rest”, said the small wind turbine expert. In commercial and industrial plants a turbine could even pay for itself within five to eight years.