Working For Jobs

EUROPARC Federation/Regensburg, Bayern, Germany

The EUROPARC Federation is Europe’s biggest network, supporting and representing the work of Europe’s Protected areas. A member organisation, with interests in nature conservation, sustainable tourism development, capacity building and European environment policy development and implementation, good strategic and specific communication is central to our work.

JOB VACANCY – COMMUNCATION OFFICER

A Communication Officer, with an interest in nature and a passion for parks, needs an understanding and willingness to work in an NGO culture.
Proficient written skills in English are essential and good knowledge (B1 or higher) in German is desirable. Additional European languages are advantageous.
Experience in the production of publications and press work , as well as the management of website and social media content are essential. Close liaison with members through the creation of an online newsletter are all also essential.
We are looking for an innovative and creative thinker who is adaptable and responsive to change. They must work well under pressure and be able to juggle several projects at once. They are generally outgoing and comfortable meeting new people. Due to the nature of the work they must be accurate, flexible, enthusiastic, and responsible
Operating from the headquarters in Regensburg the Communications Officer will contribute to the small dedicated team.

-CV with letter of interest detailing their relevant experience by 12pm (CET) on Monday 13th February.
-Interviews will be held in Regensburg during the week commencing 27th February.
-Salary will start from 2500 Euros monthly gross, depending on age and experience. -This will initially be no more than a 2 year contract.
-Job description and details can be obtained from our website; http://www.europarc.org/uploaded/documents/859.pdf

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by Paul Gipe.

Despite widespread rumors in North America that Germany was abandoning its system of Advanced Renewable Tariffs, the country’s upper chamber of parliament, the Bundesrat, approved the latest revision of its pioneering Renewable Energy Sources Act [PDF] on July 8, 2011.

The action follows approval by Germany’s House of Commons, the Bundestag, on June 30, 2011.

The new version of the law first introduced in Germany in 2000 will go into effect Jan. 1, 2012.

Approval of the latest revisions of the Renewable Energy Sources Act, the Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (EEG) in German, is significant because it follows the nuclear accident at Fukishima, Japan and the debate in Germany about the future of nuclear power.

The 30-year long debate on nuclear in Germany was settled earlier this summer when parliament decisively voted to quit nuclear power by 2022.

Germany is currently ruled by a coalition of the Conservative (CDU/CSU), and the neoliberal (FDP) parties.

Thus, the vote on revisions to the Renewable Energy Sources Act for 2012 follows the decision to quit nuclear power and further expand the role of renewable energy in the electricity sector.

The revisions for 2012 were part of regularly scheduled periodic revisions. Previous revisions occurred in 2004 and 2009.

The 2012 EEG sets a minimum requirement of not less than 35 percent of renewable energy in electricity supply by 2020, not less than 50 percent by 2030 and not less than 65 percent by 2040 and not less than 80 percent by 2050.

However, the law actually sets a target of between 35 and 40 percent of supply within the next decade. This conforms to a decision made by the Ministry of Environment in 2010. See “Germany Ups Renewable Target—Again.”

Rather than reducing its commitment to expanding renewable energy, Germany has codified a more aggressive target than in the previous law.

Final interpretation of the complex 204-page law will be issued by the Ministry of the Environment, the BMU, later this summer.

Some key provisions of the 2012 EEG include

Raising biomass tariffs nearly 30 percent from €0.11/kWh ($0.16/kWh) to €0.14/kWh ($0.20/kWh) for plants less than 150 kW in size.
Increasing geothermal tariffs more than 50 percent from €0.16/kWh ($0.22/kWh) for small projects to €0.25/kWh ($0.36/kWh) for all projects.
Increasing offshore wind tariffs 15 percent from €0.13/kWh ($0.19/kWh) to €0.15/kWh ($0.21/kWh).
Increasing the “starter” bonus for offshore wind nearly 25 percent from €0.15/kWh ($0.21/kWh) to €0.19/kWh ($0.27/kWh).
Maintaining the 2011 degression for solar photovoltaics (solar PV) into 2012.
Maintaining the tariffs for wind energy on land, including the repowering bonus.

Significantly, parliament again stated its support for the rapid development of solar PV in Germany. The 2012 EEG continued the current policy of regulating solar PV development within a “growth corridor” of 3,500 MW per year.

If Germany maintains growth of solar PV of 3,500 MW per year it will remain the world’s largest solar market for the foreseeable future. Both the government and the industry expect solar PV capacity to exceed 50,000 MW by 2020.

Solar PV growth will be regulated by adjustments in the annual degression rate of 9 percent. If the growth exceeds the target, the degression is increased. If growth is less than the target, the degression is decreased.

In addition, the 2012 EEG continues the German reference yield system for wind energy both on shore and off shore. The system is designed to ensure that not only wind energy at windy sites can be developed but also wind energy at less windy sites as well. The system has proven successful. Today, nearly 60 percent of all wind energy in Germany is developed in the less windy interior of the country, taking development pressure off the windy North Sea cost.

See “Tables of Feed-In Tariffs Worldwide” for details on the 2012 EEG as well as updated feed-in tariffs on Britain’s Renewable Heat Incentive.

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by Arne Jungjohann.

Cross-posted from The Hill.

Germany’s plans to phase out nuclear power seemed to catch many
around the world by surprise and create a fair amount of skepticism.
Some painted it as a “panicked overreaction” to the nuclear meltdown in Japan, and even as “environmental
vandalism.”

One can argue that
Germans are more risk-averse than other cultures. The Chernobyl accident in 1986 resulted in a radioactive cloud hanging over large parts of
Europe for several weeks. It was a smart precaution to stay out of the
rain and skip eating vegetables to avoid contamination. After
experiencing this physical threat to personal health, Germans are more
concerned about the risks of nuclear power than others might be.

The Fukushima accident not only confirmed this skepticism. It
demonstrated the need for a new risk assessment: If a high-tech nation
like Japan is not able to cope with a nuclear meltdown, why should
Germany be? And why let a few corporations make all the profits when
taxpayers are asked to pay billions for an accident in the end? With 80
million people in an area half the size of Texas, Germany is so densely
populated that a nuclear disaster would turn into an economic
catastrophe beyond imagination.

A decade ago, Germany started
transitioning towards a low-carbon economy. The share of renewable power
has tripled. Wind farms, solar modules, biogas, and hydro power provide
18 percent of Germany’s power supply. Today, renewables are a reliable
and indispensable pillar of Germany’s power supply that keep trains
running and factories humming. The sector is fast growing and provides
370,000 well-paying jobs—much more than the 22,000 jobs in Germany’s
lignite coal industry. Many of these jobs are within traditional
industries, such as steel, farming, and the ceramic and glass
industries.

Critics argue that Germany will hurt its economy by raising energy
costs, replacing nuclear power with imports from France, and building
more coal plants, thus increasing carbon emissions. The facts do not
bear this out.

First, Germany is able to supply its power needs on its
own without nuclear. The country has been mostly a net exporter of
power over the last decade. Depending on the time of day and year,
households and industry consume 40,000 to 80,000 megawatts (MW) of power.
Even if all 17 nuclear power stations were shut down at once, coal, gas,
and renewables still provide a capacity of 81,000 MW.

Power
is imported not out of a lack of supply, but as an economic decision to
shop where prices are lowest. Though Germany is often importing
electricity from France during the spring and fall, the relationship is
reciprocal: In summer and winter, France is importing power from
Germany. When temperatures rise and the water levels drop, river-cooled
nuclear reactors have to reduce output or be shut down. 

Second,
the nuclear phaseout does not jeopardize Germany’s ambitious climate
action efforts: reducing carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2020 and by
at least 80 percent by 2050. By rules of the E.U. carbon market, emissions
from the energy sector are capped. Even if coal were to replace nuclear
capacity, emissions will have to be reduced within the entire sector,
either by shifting to natural gas or by replacing old coal plants with
more efficient ones.

Third, a shift to a renewable energy powered
economy comes with costs. However, this price tag is modest in
comparison to the heavy burden that nuclear brings. Over the last 40
years, the German nuclear industry has been pampered with more than 200
billion Euros ($281 billion) in subsidies. In comparison, renewable energy
technologies have been incentivized by about 4.8 billion Euros ($6.7 billion) in 2010.
By replacing fossil fuel imports and avoiding health costs, renewables
already pay off today. 

When the German Parliament passes the
nuclear phaseout legislation in early July, it will be accompanied by
seven other laws to accelerate investments in renewables and
retrofitting of houses, to increase energy efficiency, to develop new
storage technologies, and to improve the energy grid infrastructure. By
2020, Germany aims to supply its economy with at least 35 percent of
renewable power, and 80 percent by mid-century.

Politics,
too, played a role in the recent decision. Chancellor Angela Merkel
used to be a strong proponent of nuclear. Her governing coalition has
paid a high price for this. The Green Party has won one election after
another. In the most recent state election, Merkel’s Conservative Party
came in third behind the Greens. Her reversal on nuclear policy after
Fukushima was driven by the understanding that most Germans across the
political spectrum favor a phaseout as soon as possible.

Germany’s
gradual nuclear phaseout is neither unique—Japan, Switzerland and
Italy are following suit—nor a hysterical overreaction. It is yet
another cornerstone in a comprehensive, long-term strategy of industrial
modernization that turns the energy challenge into an economic
opportunity. Saying “Auf Wiedersehen” to nuclear will accelerate the
transition towards a low-carbon economy.

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by David Roberts.

A few weeks ago, I visited Germany to learn more about its clean energy programs and progress. The folks at EnergyNow! called me up to chat about some of the things I saw, lessons I learned, and schnitzel I ate. Here’s the video:

If you’re keen to read more, here are the posts that came out of my trip:

Germans pay extra for clean energy—is it worth it?
Visiting a house in Germany that generates more energy than it uses
Germans happily pay more for clean energy. Why don’t Americans?
Underground environmentalism in communist East Germany

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by David Roberts.

When I had a free afternoon during my recent trip to Berlin, I headed down Under den Linden (I love German street names—my hotel was on the Albrechtstraße, which is a whole meal in a word) to the relatively new DDR Museum, which showcases ordinary life under socialist rule in East Germany. It’s a fascinating place. It doesn’t downplay the crushing conformity imposed on living quarters, cars, and work conditions under the German Democratic Republic (GDR), but it still shows the idiosyncrasies and spirit that no regime can ever entirely suppress. If you’re in Berlin, I recommend it.

One of the most interesting aspects was finding out how central environmental consciousness was to the rise and fall of socialism in Germany. When the GDR was founded, one of its many promises to workers was clean working conditions, without the polluted air and water imposed by capitalist industrialization. There were legal safeguards and fines on polluters. The regime was quite energy conscious, at least in the beginning. In the late 1950s, for instance, there was a popular comic strip character called Wattfraß with isolators on its head and a plug on its rear that was created to encourage children not to waste energy. (Note child strangling Wattfraß to the right there. At the linked page, there’s another of the child skewering Wattfraß on a pitchfork.) Environmental stewardship was written into the constitution in 1968.

Of course, that promise, like all the others, was broken. Things went south quickly as the GDR became dependent on the region’s filthy brown coal (lignite). Here’s one of the first sights that greets visitors to the museum—a model of a huge coal-mining machine:

Delightful.

Over time, there was very little innovation, environmental standards fell away, and the need for industrial output increased. Between coal and chemicals, the situation got worse and worse until several German towns were completely obscured in dark soot, people were choking and dying of respiratory illnesses, and so on.

This story of degradation and ill health did not serve the GDR well, so in 1982 the council of ministers officially deemed all environmental data confidential, a state secret. This, as much as any other act by the regime, inspired grassroots resistance, expressed by a profusion of DIY pamphlets on civil rights and ecology.

In 1987, the Stasi broke into the basement of the East Berlin Zion Church and shut down the Umwelt-Bibliothek, or Environmental Library, an underground educational institution meant to to promote discussion of suppressed or censored material. Such groups, often taking shelter in churches, had operated since the mid-‘70s. The library used an old printing press to distribute its own magazine, which came to be known as Umweltblätter, or “environmental letters.” The circulation reached 2,000 before it was shut down.

I should probably be careful about drawing any Grand Conclusions. There’s a deep history around this stuff in Germany and I’m far from an expert on it. But I can’t resist a few observations.

First, what happened to industry under GDR is what happens when decisions are controlled by a small group of people, usually people who own—or have financial or political ties to those who own—the means of production. The focus inevitably turns to rapid growth, gigantism, pollution, and profits. The poor and defenseless (a large class in the GDR) have no voice and so they suffer while a small group benefits. Those who profit always claim to be acting in the public interest, but given a real choice, the public puts a far higher premium on health and safety.

Now, here in America we don’t live under a communist dictatorship. So that’s good. But if there’s one sector of our economy that comes closest to socialism, it’s energy. Decisions are made by a small group of owners, regulators, and politicians; there’s nothing approximating a free market and very little in the way of public participation.

Sure enough, the results tend toward the big, dirty, and hostile to regulatory constraints. This kind of centralization and gigantism has become so familiar to us in energy that we scarcely notice it. We have become accustomed to thinking of our future in terms of ever-rising demand and ever-larger power plants (despite the recent failures of that approach).

But when communities own their own means of energy production, when they live next to it, they are willing to pay extra and consume more conscientiously in exchange for cleanliness. Something new is happening in Germany now: Of all the country’s renewable energy, just 4 percent is owned by the four big utilities. The remaining 96 percent is owned by private households, small municipal utilities, rural and energy cooperatives, and people’s wind parks.

In Germany, the power oligopoly has competition. It is the beginning (only the beginning) of energy democracy: a safer, cleaner, more human-scale energy system. Some 25 years after it was shut down, the Umweltblätter is bearing fruit.

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by David Roberts.

During my trip to Germany last week, one of my hosts from the Böll Foundation and I took a morning commuter train up to Borgsdorf, north of Berlin, to visit an experimental passivhaus built by architect Oliver Jirka for his own family. Here’s your faithful correspondent on the scene:

The house has been the subject of several news stories (here’s one in English). The first thing that struck me is that it looks like a house—sleek and modern, but nothing particularly wacky or unusual. I only note that because energy-wise it’s extraordinary: It gathers ambient energy and feeds it into the grid. That is to say, it’s an energy generator, not an energy consumer.

It will take Jirka about a decade to pay off the solar panels on the roof, but from that point on, his energy bills will be … well, not bills. They’ll be payments, an income stream rather than the income sink familiar to most of us homeowners.

The side of the house I’m on, with all the windows, faces south; all passivhaus design orients toward the equator. That two-story window in the southwest corner gathers heat, which is then trapped by glass (which contains argon) and walls 40 centimeters thick. Those walls are stuffed with insulation made of shredded newspaper.

The house’s joints are sealed tight, but there’s a sophisticated ventilation and filtering system that keeps the interior air fresh and, Jirka told me, cleaner than outdoor air.

On the roof is a cutting-edge water-cooled solar PV system. (Jirka says water-cooled PV is only about 1 percent of the market now but advancing quickly.) Panels get less efficient as they heat up, so active cooling can boost efficiency by something like 15 percent in hot weather.

The water that cools the panels carries heat into the home for use as hot water and space heating. There’s a heat pump too, and a heat exchanger, but I’ll hash the details if I try to explain how they work. It has to do with the differences in air temperature and the temperature down a few feet below the ground.

Suffice to say, it’s ingenious, but what really struck me is how low-tech (“appropriate tech”?) most of it is. There’s a digital readout for the solar panels, but other than that the technology mostly involves thick walls and tubes to move air and water around. The sun and earth provide the energy; all the house does is situate itself cleverly within those energy flows. That’s what dematerialization is all about: substituting careful design for the brute force of fossil-fuel combustion.

Jirka isn’t just getting involved in his own energy needs, he’s pushing his neighbors to get involved too. Recently he pulled together dozens of local investors to fund a big 30kW PV system on the town’s community center. Now they have have a direct, personal stake in the area’s energy future.

Jirka and his neighbors want to own and control their own energy supply, rather than leaving it in the hands of a giant, far-off utility. It’s hard to put a dollar value on that kind of self-reliance and civic spirit, but lots of folks in Germany seem willing to pay a little extra for it.

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by David Roberts.

This week, I’m going to be traveling to Berlin under the gracious auspices of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, a German clean energy nonprofit. Exciting! It’ll be my first time in Germany.

Aside from saying the words “schnitzel” and “spätzle” as often as possible (schnitzel! spätzle!), I’m going to be attending a symposium on Nuclear Power After Chernobyl and Fukushima, speaking at the Re:publica Conference about being a climate blogger in the U.S., visiting some nearby renewable energy installations, and speaking with a variety of Germany’s leading lights on the subject of distributed energy and how it has affected German society and politics.

It’s that latter bit that most interests me. Readers know I’m a big fan of distributed energy, which is perpetually overlooked or marginalized in the mainstream U.S. energy conversation. In Germany, however, they’re going for it. Their aggressive feed-in tariff program (which guarantees generators above-market returns for any clean energy they produce, mostly from solar panels) has made Germany a world leader in renewable energy and, specifically, in distributed energy—something like 60 percent of the distributed energy generation in the country is owned by individuals, not utilities. (Don’t hold me to that number—I’m writing in a mad rush before I go catch a plane.)

That means thousands and thousands of Germans have invested in renewable energy and are relying on it for a steady income stream, a dynamic not unlike Social Security or other entitlements in the U.S. How has that changed German politics and culture?

I hope to find out, or at least get started finding out. I’m not sure I’ll have time to post much while I’m there, but hopefully by the time I’m back I’ll have some good thoughts and info to share.

In the meantime, you should bookmark Heinrich Böll Stiftung (don’t worry, it’s in English). There’s tons of great stuff there.

Auf Wiedersehen! Also: schnitzel!

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by Paul Gipe.

As the nuclear reactor accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant continues
to dominate the world’s attention, Germany has quietly broken more
renewable energy records.

The conservative government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, struggling to
stay ahead of public attitudes toward nuclear power in the run-up to
regional elections, issued its annual report on the contribution of
renewable energy to the German energy market in 2010.

Wind turbines, hydroelectric plants, solar cells, and biogas digesters now provide nearly 17 percent of Germany’s electricity.

Meanwhile, the German network agency Bundesnetzagentur issued its final update on the installation of solar photovoltaics (PV) in 2010.

The results are nothing short of startling and will add fuel to the
heated debate about how countries such as Japan can meet their
electricity needs without reliance on nuclear power.

In the immediate aftermath of the Japanese nuclear accident, Germany’s
Merkel closed two reactors permanently, and another five temporarily.
She also called on her government to revisit its controversial decision
to extend the life of its aging reactors.

The reactors at Fukushima Daiichi are 40 years old and their license to operate had been extended by the Japanese government.

The reports on the rapid growth of renewable energy in Germany may give
Merkel’s government the cover it needs to reverse direction on nuclear
power, and by doing so reverse its faltering political fortunes.

Germany uses an advanced system of feed-in tariffs to pay for renewable
energy generation, and has an aggressive target of meeting 39 percent of its
electricity supply with renewable energy by 2020. Its system of advanced
renewable tariffs has enabled Germany to exceed its 2010 target of
12.5 percent by a wide margin.

New renewables near 17 percent of electricity supply in 2010: The German Ministry for the Environment and Reactor Safety reports [PDF] that in 2010, renewable energy generated more than 100 TWh (billion
kilowatt-hours) of electricity, providing nearly 17 percent of the 600 TWh of
supply.

Wind turbines and biomass plants delivered more than 70 percent of renewable generation.

Biogas plants powered with methane from manure alone generated nearly 13 TWh.

In 2010, renewables generated more electricity in Germany than gas-fired
power plants—nearly as much as hard coal—and are fast approaching the
contribution of nuclear power.

7,400 megawatts (MW) of solar PV installed in one year: Doubling their previous record, the German solar PV industry installed
7,400 MW from nearly one-quarter million individual systems in 2010,
according to the final report by the Bundesnetzagentur.

In December alone, Germans installed more than 1,000 MW of solar PV,
enough solar capacity to generate 1 TWh of electricity under German
conditions. While they represent only half that installed in June 2010,
the December installations were 50 percent greater than total solar PV
installed in the USA in 2010 and as much as that rumored to have been
installed in Japan last year.

Nearly 700 MW from some 100,000 systems were installed in a size range typical of that installed by German homeowners.

An astounding 3,700 MW from more than 135,000 systems were installed in a
size range representative of that installed by farmers and other small
businesses.

Another 1,700 MW were installed in a size class characteristic of small businesses and large industrial rooftops.

Large, multi-megawatt systems comprised 1,400 MW of capacity or nearly one-fifth of total capacity installed in 2010.

Renewable electricity more than 30 percent of supply on Feb. 7: A further sign that renewable energy has come of age as a commercial
generating technology, certainly in Germany, is that penetration of wind
and solar reached more than 30 percent of supply on Feb. 7, 2010,
according to data posted publicly by Germany’s electricity transmission exchange, EEX.

The exchange posts online the amount of capacity of conventional
generation, wind generation, and solar PV generation delivered to the
grid by time of day.

On Monday, Feb. 7, 2011, the combined real-time wind and solar
generation varied from a high of 32 percent of supply at midnight to a low of
18 percent of supply at sunrise. Solar PV generation delivered more than 8,000
MW for the two-hour period from just before noon until 2:00 p.m., reaching
a peak of nearly 8,500 MW at noon. During the same time period,
conventional sources contributed 50,000 MW and wind delivered another
10,000 MW to the network.

There is 16,500 MW of solar PV capacity now online in Germany. Solar
insolation is weakest in mid-winter, and highest in mid-summer. The
solar industry’s Feb. 7 performance bodes well for this coming
summer, when solar PV can be expected to break new records.

In other Feb. 7, 2011 observations:

PV produced 13 percent of supply at noon.
Wind reached nearly 1/3 of generation at midnight.
Wind and solar’s combined 18,500 MW at noon met 29 percent of demand.
PV was producing 1/2 of its nameplate in mid-winter.
Wind was producing near its total installed capacity.

With the Japanese nuclear calamity fresh in everyone’s mind and upcoming
elections staring the government in the face, the success of Germany’s
rapid development of renewable energy may give Merkel’s
conservative government the flexibility it needs to weather the nuclear
crisis. It would not be surprising to find the government proposing an
even more aggressive pace of renewable energy development than that seen
in 2010.

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