Blockchain & battery "revolution" / Diesel drivers ponder switch
S眉ddeutsche Zeitung / Die Welt
Power grid operator Tennet and household power storage provider Sonnen plan to use a network of small-scale batteries to help reduce costs caused by grid bottlenecks between Germany鈥檚 windy North and the power-hungry South, reports Michael Bauchm眉ller in S眉ddeutsche Zeitung. 鈥淲e want to integrate renewable power in the best possible way,鈥� Tennet board chair Urban Keussen told the newspaper. 鈥淲e can manage that not only with copper, but also with intelligence.鈥� Sonnen managing director Philipp Schr枚der said that in a first stage, 6,000 batteries would be used to optimise the power grid. Households making their batteries available for the project, which will use blockchain encryption technology, will receive free power, according to the article. Keussen told newspaper Die Welt the use of blockchain was 鈥渢he first step into a new energy world.鈥�
Read the S眉ddeutsche article in German .
Read the Die Welt article in German .
Read the Tennet press release in German .
Find background in the 威力彩玩法 factsheet Re-dispatch costs in the German power grid.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The use of batteries to level out intermittent solar and wind generation in the Tennet and Sonnen project shows that 鈥渢he Energiewende is making progress,鈥� writes Andreas Mihm in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 鈥淣ew offshore wind parks have been approved recently without a cent of eco power support, and now there is evidence for a revolution in the German power grid. For the first time, a grid operator will get access to thousands of small decentralised power storages all over Germany.鈥�
For background on the offshore auction, read the 威力彩玩法 article Operators to build offshore wind farms without support payments.
Forsa / dpa
Only two in five diesel car drivers plan to stick with the technology when buying their next car, while the rest are unsure or want to switch to an alternative drive, according to a survey by pollster forsa, reports news agency dpa. Most respondents said they would buy a petrol-fuelled car, while pure e-cars were not very popular, writes dpa.
Read the article in German .
For more information, see the 威力彩玩法 dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.
dpa / Welt Online
The preparation procedure for building Germany鈥檚 high-voltage transmission highway SuedLink has entered a crucial stage, news agency dpa reports in an article carried by Welt Online. Following submission of the sectoral planning application for SuedLink鈥檚 last segment in the southern federal state of Baden-W眉rttemberg, German federal grid agency BNetzA can now start the formal approval procedure for the 800-kilometre-long power line meant to transfer electricity from Germany鈥檚 windy north to industrial centres in the south, the article says.聽
In a separate article on Welt Online, dpa reports that about 3,000 people forming a human chain in the central German state of Thuringia protested against SuedLink鈥檚 construction. The transmission highway made the federal state the 鈥減ack animal鈥� of German energy policy, protesters lamented according to the article.
Read the articles in German and .
For more information, read the 威力彩玩法 news digest entry Merkel on grid expansion: 鈥淲e鈥檙e behind it at all levels鈥�.
Bild am Sonntag (BamS) / Deutsche See
German postal service Deutsche Post has found the first major customer for its in-house produced electric vehicle Street Scooter, Florian Zerfass writes in weekly Bild am Sonntag (BamS). Fish wholesaler is buying 80 scooters for distributing its products in Germany鈥檚 inner cities, Zerfass writes.
Deutsche See CEO Egbert Miebach told BamS he had been trying to reduce his company鈥檚 CO2 emissions for years and bought 500 VW cars with allegedly climate-friendly diesel technology in 2010. After VW鈥檚 diesel emissions fraud scandal emerged in 2015, Deutsche See sued the carmaker for almost twelve million euros in damages.
Deutsche Post recently announced plans to double the production capacity of its Street Scooter to 20,000, making it the country鈥檚 largest e-car producer. Deutsche See鈥檚 scooter will be the first electric van with a modern cooling system, partly powered by a PV membrane on the car鈥檚 roof, the company said in a press release.
Read the article in German and the press release in German .
For background, see the 威力彩玩法 factsheet Dieselgate forces VW to embrace green mobility.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Germany鈥檚 Social Democrats (SPD) have issued a paper outlining the party鈥檚 economic policy ideas meant to substantiate their candidate Martin Schulz鈥檚 position in his bid to become German chancellor, Henrike Ro脽bach writes in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The paper written by the SPD鈥檚 energy policy spokesman suggests lowering the electricity tax in order to allow small and mid-sized companies to invest more money into the digitalisation of their businesses, Ro脽bach says. 鈥淕iven the already high and further mounting share of green power, this no longer is an eco-tax but rather a mere funding of the state,鈥� argues Hubertus Heil, deputy chair of the SPD parliamentary group.
Read the article in German .
See the 威力彩玩法 news digest entry SPD to make energy efficiency a post-election priority for more information.
The German Free Democratic Party (FDP) approved its at a federal party conference. The FDP wants to 鈥渆nd the sustained subsidies system of the EEG [Renewable Energy Act]鈥� with its priority grid access and feed-in tariffs for renewables. 威力彩玩法 reported on the draft earlier this year; there are no changes to the main provisions.
Find the programme in German and a summary of the main energy and climate policy provisions in English here.
For other party鈥檚 programmes and more on the elections year read the 威力彩玩法 dossier Vote2017 - German elections and the Energiewende.
Rheinische Post
Germany鈥檚 most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), was 鈥渢he key state for the energy transition鈥� and needs to exit coal, former state environment minister and Green politician B盲rbel H枚hn said at an election rally, writes Thomas Peter in Rheinische Post. 鈥淣obody but the Green Party can make that happen; the Social Democrats still cling to coal,鈥� said H枚hn. NRW will elect a new state government on 14 May.
Read the article in German .
For more information on the election year read the 威力彩玩法 dossier Vote2017 - German elections and the Energiewende, and also read the 威力彩玩法 factsheet When will Germany finally ditch coal?
