Nowhere is the economic impact of the German energy transition more evident than in Bavaria where land owners and farmers have taken advantage of the new incentives to become “prosumers”. In this interview that Paul Hockenos conducted with Josef Goeppel, a conservative member of the Bundestag from Bavaria, it becomes clear how German traditional conservatives are grasping the relevance of the Energiewende. Fifteen years ago, processes were set in motion that would turn Germany’s energy market on its head. The main catalysts: liberalization of the energy market and passage of the Renewable Energy Resources Act. Since then, Germany’s energy market has been transformed from one in which four giant utilities companies and several dozen small municipal power companies ruled the roost, to today when Germany’s decentralized energy production includes around 3.5 million mostly small and medium-sized energy producers. Nowhere is the economic impact of this metamorphosis more evident than in Bavaria where land owners and farmers have taken advantage of the new space and incentives to become “prosumers,” above all with photovoltaic and bio-energy, but … Continue reading The Energiewende – the Result of a Powerful Mass Movement from Below