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Germany: the energy transition as a green industrial development agenda

Pegels, Anna
External Publications (2017)

in: Tilman Altenburg / Claudia Assmann (eds.), Green industrial policy: concept, policies, country experiences, Geneva; Bonn: UN Environment; German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), 168-184

ISBN: 978-92-807-3685-4
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Pegels discusses the German Energiewende, the transition from coal and nuclear to renewable energies and enhanced energy efficiency, from the perspective of economic co-benefits. Her analysis shows that Germany has made considerable progress in the deployment of renewable energies for electricity generation, whereas other areas, such as energy efficiency, are lagging behind expectations. With about 300,000 jobs, employment in Germany’s renewable energies sector in 2014 far surpassed employment numbers in the hard and brown coal industries. Regarding manufacturing, Germany’s wind energy industry has emerged as a global leader, with a world market share in wind energy converters of about 25 percent in 2014. Other sectors have been less successful. The solar panel industry, for example, boomed for some years but then experienced a phase of decline due to competition from Chinese low-cost imports. On the demand side, exemptions from the renewable electricity levy protect the competitiveness of energy intensive industries, but increase the burden on other industries and on households.

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