What role do municipal utilities play in the German Energiewende? In many cases, they have become the drivers of local innovation, reports Paul Hockenos. Schwäbisch Hall, Germany. Lanky, urbane, and impeccably dressed, Johannes van Bergen exudes self-confidence from behind his neat desk at the Stadtwerke Schwäbisch Hall (SSH), a municipal utility near Stuttgart in southern Germany. Indeed during his 23-year tenure, the community-owned utility and its 63-year-old director have been showered with prizes and distinctions for their progressive energy policies. Most recently, the old market town of Schwäbisch Hall, which has a population of 37,000, was named the country’s “energy municipality of the year” and van Bergen as 2012’s number-one energy executive. About his own plaudits, van Bergen is modest. But not when it comes to those of the best-practice utility: ”Local energy utilities like our SSH are ideally suited to the purpose of a decentralized energy transition,“ explains van Bergen, who was a close friend of the late Hermann Scheer, a fellow Social Democrat considered by many the visionary father of the Energiewende. “We … Continue reading Local, Decentralized, Innovative: Why Germany’s Municipal Utilities are Right for the Energiewende