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What exactly is the Energy Research Programme?
Promoting ideas that help make the energy transition a success
We do not know when exactly mankind invented the wheel. We assume that it must have been around 5,000 or 6,000 years ago. There is not much more secure knowledge about when windmills were invented, but they have probably been around for some 4,000 years. In contrast to this, the invention of the modern-day wind turbine is well-documented: Ulrich Hütter, an aviation engineer from Stuttgart, developed Germany’s first wind turbine with highly aerodynamic blades directly after the end of the Second World War. Wind turbines have come a long way since then: they have become ever bigger and they are generating ever larger amounts of electricity at ever lower prices. In 2016 alone, wind turbines accounted for 41.8 percent of all renewable energy installations.
New technologies and more energy-efficient solutions needed
Wind power alone would not have been enough to get the energy transition off the ground. New findings in other fields have helped researchers and engineers develop technology that is not only more efficient but also more affordable. Photovoltaics installations, for example, are now among the most affordable technologies when it comes to generating electricity from renewable sources. Furthermore, researchers and developers have also developed new energy-efficiency solutions that we would not have thought possible a few years ago. As a result, Germany has managed to sever the link between its GDP growth and its energy consumption. This means that our economy is growing at a faster pace than our energy consumption.
Forty years of energy research funding
Conducting research into and developing new, efficient technologies requires a lot of time and money, and a lot of expertise. This is where the Federal Government’s Energy Research Programme comes in: since 1977 – a long time before the energy transition became an issue – funding has been provided, both for research groups over a longer period of time and for projects with a limited timeframe. Over the last 40 years, a total of around €12 billion has been provided for around 17,300 energy research projects.
Finding the best solutions through dialogue
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has the lead responsibility for the Energy Research Programme and is continuing to enhance the programme further. Since 1977, there have been six Energy Research Programmes, each of which has taken into account current goals and developments. In December 2016, the seventh Programme was launched. It was the first to have been conceived based on a broad-based dialogue between industry, academia and policymakers. This consultation process has allowed all stakeholders to make comments at an early stage and develop joint ideas for enhancing the Programme. One of the key questions was which technologies will help drive forward the energy transition and should therefore be provided with funding.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy’s Energy Research Networks
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy’s seven Energy Research Networks play a key role in the consultation process. They link up stakeholders from all the important fields of energy research such as grids and renewable energy. This helps create more transparency and openness and ensures that researchers can take their findings faster from the lab to the market. The members of the Research Network have developed some first recommendations for the seventh Energy Research Programme, setting out the areas in which additional research is needed and those which the Ministry should focus its funding on. As far as photovoltaics is concerned, the experts have proposed, for example, focusing on those technologies that help to further reduce manufacturing and materials costs – and therefore the costs of electricity generation – and to improve the lifetime of the installations. The costs for generating electricity from wind power are also to be further reduced. And in addition, wind farms are to be more effectively incorporated into the energy supply system and wind power further expanded in a way that is acceptable for society.
The stakeholders have until the end of this year to hand in additional comments or recommendations. The results of the consultation process will be presented at the Future Energy Forum in Berlin on 21 February 2018.