This year, the Energy Transition Forum again took place in the digital space. This made it possible for many people to participate in the online event and join in the discussion. Spread over the summer and fall, there were a total of five events on different areas from the world of the energy transition with keynote speeches from 19 speakers and support from Deutsche Kreditbank.

System integration and sector coupling on 10.06.2021

To achieve climate neutrality, fossil fuels must be replaced by electricity from renewable sources. The networking of the sectors of the energy industry is important here.

Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Markus Zdrallek, Prof. Dr. Ingo Stadler, Kim Viola Kanitz and Markus Mann provided valuable insights into the topics of energy storage, load management, thermal management and power-to-gas plants. More info is available in this separate Review.

Green hydrogen on 21.09.2021

Green hydrogen is a key building block for achieving climate protection goals, but it is also one of the most discussed topics in the energy industry.

An overview was provided by Marcel Keiffenheim of Green Planet Energy, by defining when hydrogen is truly climate-friendly, and he commented: "Whether the hydrogen economy benefits or harms climate protection depends on how we design the ramp-up."

The potentials of a domestic hydrogen economy presented to us Christian Mildenberger from the NRW State Renewable Energy Association. He summed it up like this: "Domestic hydrogen production and the associated value-added effects can trigger a new economic miracle in Germany, especially with regard to potential new jobs. The renewable energy potential for this is there and just needs to be exploited."

Manuela Heise from Deutsche Kreditbank presented the energy transition from a financial perspective and illustrated how DKB finances hydrogen projects. It shares the potential in green hydrogen: "Hydrogen can make a significant contribution to reducing climate-damaging CO2 emissions in the heating, transport, industry and electricity sectors. That's why, as the largest financier of the energy transition, we support green hydrogen projects with conviction."

The question about the use of green hydrogen answered us Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Sterner from the East Bavarian Technical University of Regensburg. He works at the Research Center for Energy Networks and Energy Storage.

Mobility turnaround on 29.09.2021

Transforming our transportation system toward environmentally friendly mobility is a challenging but important and multifaceted task.

Oliver Geissler from EnergyAgency.NRW presented the status quo of electromobility and public charging infrastructure in NRW and assessed it thus: "The ramp-up of electromobility is in full swing, and electric commercial vehicles are already in the starting blocks. For the electrification of transport as a whole to succeed, the ramp-up of public charging infrastructure urgently needs to follow suit - or better yet, run ahead of it."

Through the presentation of Florian Eagle from Stadtwerke Münster, we were able to get a picture of the e-bus strategy. He particularly addressed the importance of infrastructure and sector coupling: "The conversion to electric buses is not so much about buying new vehicles. It needs a coherent overall system, which also includes energy procurement, infrastructure and qualification of the employees."

The mobility turnaround also needs to be financed. That is why there are various financing options for e-charging station infrastructure, ranging from Jens Richter were shown by Deutsche Kreditbank.

Lastly, we looked at the social aspect. Johannes Russmann by NABU showed the ways to a comprehensive and socially acceptable mobility turnaround: "Climate protection in transport means more social justice - not less. We are demonstrating this with our cross-association Socially Responsible Mobility Transition Alliance based on four key dimensions."

Tenant electricity on 12.11.2021

The concept of tenant electricity is becoming increasingly attractive. Electricity is produced in the immediate vicinity of the customer without being fed into the public grid.

Andreas Gißler from the Heidelberger Energiegenossenschaft eG compared the HEG tenant electricity projects from 2013 and 2021 to illustrate the development. It is important to him to implement renewable energy projects locally and to realize the transformation to a sustainable society together with many citizens.

Talking about the current challenges of tenant power Björn Fich from Mainova AG: "We need to make tenant electricity more affordable. The 'green idea' alone will not keep tenant electricity attractive in the long term."

Dr. Sarah Debor from NATURSTROM AG brought the topic once again to the point by presenting and emphasizing 3 good reasons for tenant electricity and 1 practical example: "Tenant power has never been so important or so attractive. It's worth talking about."

Municipalities & counties facing the challenge of climate neutrality on 16.11.2021

Municipalities and districts play a crucial role in implementing sustainable development: they implement the Sustainable Development Goals at the local level.

Silke Wesselmann from the district of Steinfurt and managing director of energieland 2050 e.V. clarified how to start the goal of climate neutrality in 2040. In doing so, she referred to the experiences of the Steinfurt district, which sees itself as a pioneer and champion of the regional energy turnaround. Nevertheless, Silke Wesselmann stressed the need to be even faster.

Elena Cantos from the Agency for Renewable Energies e.V. sees the heat turnaround as an important work step and gave a keynote speech about the municipalities as coordinating, promoting and demanding authorities: "Climate protection is not possible without a heat turnaround. Municipalities have a crucial role to play here."

In addition to the energy turnaround, the heat turnaround is also at Armin Mayr from the city of Regensburg on our list of presentations and his list of priorities: "The energy and heat transition can only succeed if the focus is expanded from individual buildings to entire neighborhoods."