Sebastian Helgenberger
Head IASS Energy Transition Programme, Germany
Title: Social Benefits of Renewables – lessons learned from Germany’s Energiewende
Biography
Biography: Sebastian Helgenberger
Abstract
Boosted by impressive technological innovation and cost reductions, renewable energy in a growing number of countries is now primarily considered for its social and economic benefits. Among the benefits of the emerging new energy world are opportunities for local value creation, for responding to growing energy demands and for reducing conflicts over scarce water, which are aggravated by fossil power generation. Allowing for distributed electricity generation, the rapidly expanding renewable energy world is opening up business models for many, including local communities, citizens and citizens’ cooperatives. Sebastian Helgenberger will illustrate the social dimension of renewable energies and the Energiewende (energy transition) – in Germany and internationally. He will share surprising experiences from Germany’s Energiewende, with citizens finding themselves on the driver seat of reshaping the energy market and they way we produce, consume and own energy. Similar developments connected to the societal drivers, game changers and opportunities of renewable energies can be observed around the globe – showing that energy transitions are about much more than energy.