Declining costs of renewables drive global energy transition

According to Dr Axel Berg, Chairman of the Executive Board of the German Section of EUROSOLARAccording to the author, neither ambitious climate protection goals nor an increased ecological awareness are the drivers of the energy turnaround, but rather "the exponential cost degression in renewable energy technologies, the technical innovations in storage technologies and a high level of interest from the industrial sector". In his detailed, expert contribution, he names three key technologies that, in their interaction, will accelerate the energy turnaround to such an extent that it is very likely that major players from German old industry, which for decades were considered the backbone of our powerful industrial nation, will be disrupted away by new players.

The three Key technology:

1. solar energies, especially photovoltaics and wind power

2. memory

3. renewable mobility

We would have to increase research and development efforts in Germany to tinker with new battery generations and all the high-tech. We need public showcases, the conversion of public authority vehicle fleets, showcase cities like Graz and the bundling of SMEs. In the SME sector, many new players with good ideas are waiting in the wings. Subsidies in the double-digit billions flow annually, only slowing down the wrong channels of old industry (e.g. diesel...).

Conclusion

According to Berg, citizens could look forward to the disruptive developments described. Our cities would become quieter, the air cleaner, the quality of life would increase. Mobility would become smoother and much cheaper [FNB: because only a fraction of the previous cars would be needed and the external costs would be eliminated].

It will be bitter for the old world. The car companies have a lot of money and can survive by shrinking - similar to what E.on or RWE are currently trying to do by splitting up. It will be brutal for the medium-sized suppliers who specialise in engine parts such as gearboxes, carburettors, clutches or pistons that are simply no longer needed. Or the 40,000 car repair shops in Germany alone, whose main job is to service combustion engines. The later they look for new fields of business, the harder the economic and social collapses will be.

Everything is ready for the start of information technology disruption: renewable energies, storage, digitalisation and autonomous electric vehicles. By 2030, all of this could already be accomplished.

Read the full article from 7.8.2017 here:
www.energiezukunft.eu/...