Transitioning to renewable energy is a complex endeavour – with plenty of opportunities, many challenges and not devoid of paradoxes. Last week, the students of the Master in Global Energy Transition and Governance were able to observe this complex reality by visiting two sites in Germany with very different approaches to energy.
On the first day, they visited Feldheim (Brandenburg), the first energy self-sufficient village that relies entirely on renewable energies - wind, solar, biogas and biomass - with its local heating network and a power station. Its energy transition began in the 1990s, well before discussions about energy began to emerge in Germany. The village is in fact more than self-sufficient, as most of its produced energy is fed back into the grid. Soon to be reinforced by Feldheim’s investment into hydrogen!
The next day, the group headed to a completely different reality of Germany’s energy production. In Welzow, one of the largest open-air coal mines in Europe, which has been exploiting coal since the 1920s, they saw the gigantic excavation machines at work and discovered how the different materials are separated and transported. During their tour, they learnt about the work of the employees on site, the constraints on the machines' progression and the enormous quantities excavated from the mine every day.
The two visits allowed our students to gain a real insight into the coexistence of clean energy projects and the still huge scale of coal production in Germany. Our students realised the many factors that need to be taken into account: the energy needs to be satisfied, the environmental impact, the use of the land, the political choices, the energy price for the citizens, the social impact, the re-employment of workers – illustrating that the transition to clean energy is not so obvious and not easily feasible everywhere.