ABSTRACT
Although Germany may have fallen out of the world’s spotlight aer reunication and the end of the Cold War more than two decades ago, the country continues to exert a major inuence on the world. Its Energiewende (energy revolution) will most certainly increase this inuence in the years to come. is term refers to the recent politically driven initiative to replace Germany’s current energy mix, which is based on fossil and nuclear energy sources, with a matrix based almost exclusively on renewable energy sources. Although this eort has been underway since 2000, the 2011 nuclear disaster at Fukushima, by making the energy revolution more relevant to the public discourse, accelerated its pace. With this “revolution,” Germany hopes to free itself from nite, environmentally harmful energy sources. e program has the mindset of the German population and the focus of German politicians to thank for its present success, which has, in addition to averting harmful atmospheric emissions, contributed to the development of cutting-edge renewable energy technology. In addition, the German people’s willingness to take on this unprecedented program and the economic incentives created to fuel it has inspired many other countries.
