ABSTRACT
In order to realize the energy transition in Germany, the German government has focused on the expansion of renewable energies, especially solar energy, wind energy, and energy from biogas. The target by year 2050 is for 60 per cent of all energy demand in Germany to be provided by renewable energies (BMU, 2011). But it is not only since the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima in 2011 that renewable energies are at the centre of this energy transition process. In fact, since the 1990s a systematic development of renewable energies has been pursued, for example by promoting the development of new energy technologies or by providing a protected market niche by means of enacting the Renewable Energies Law (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz), which subsidizes the power input from renewable energies into the national electricity network. Accordingly, the relevance of the renewable energy industry has risen enormously. Germany has acquired the role of a pioneer in the international context, and the German government calls the green economy, and especially the renewable energy sector, the engine of sustainable development (e.g. BMU and BDI, 2013).
