Alexander Wendt

Why the Energiewende can’t work

Abstract

What were the objectives of the German Energiewende when it started in April 2000? To produce massive amounts of cheap, carbon free electricity and to make citizens stakeholders of the energy production. The reality more than two decades later is: the electricity price in Germany is one of the highest in the world, the production has an enormous carbon footprint (the highest in Europe after Poland) and there is a growing scarcity of energy, especially in winter. 

It can’t be denied that the German energy transition missed its own goals. But the German government is still moving on to an ‘all electricity society’, chiefly based on solar and wind power and with the strict exclusion of nuclear power. What will be the most severe problems in the years till 2030? Can the biggest economy on the continent prosper without its own fossil and nuclear power stations? 

Biography

Alexander Wendt, born 1966 in Leipzig, wrote as staff writer for Leipziger Tageblatt 1989-1991, freelancer for WELT, STERN and Tagesspiegel till 1995, and was editor for Focus Magazin from 1995 to 2019. For this weekly he wrote on politics and economy, especially on Energiewende and the economics of energy production.

In 2014 his book Der grüne Blackout. Warum die Energiewende nicht funktionieren kann (The Green Blackout. Why The Energy Transition Cannot Work) was published.

In 2017 Wendt founded the online magazine Publico, which he runs since then as CEO. From 2019, he writes also for the monthly Tichys Einblick. Wendt was awarded several times for his work as journalist. He lives in Munich.