Author: Paul Hockenos


Paul Hockenos is a Berlin-based journalist and author of Berlin Calling: A Story of Anarchy, Music, the Wall and the Birth of the New Berlin.

What’s the Next Big Thing in Energy Storage?

Energy storage becomes all the more indispensable to carbon-neutral transitions, the more wind and solar power enter the energy mix: to absorb excess supply and balance the grid at times of high demand. But there’s more than pumped hydro and batteries out there. Paul Hockenos with an overview on current and new energy storage options.

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Low-carbon Technology’s Russia Problem

Low-carbon technology has a Russia problem, too. And it’s going to get bigger. Higher prices, supply chain disruptions, and the war in Ukraine has Europe’s clean tech branch scrambling for non-Russian suppliers of key raw materials, such as nickel, palladium, lithium, platinum, cobalt, and neon-gas, as well as aluminium and copper. Some countries, such as the UK, have already begun to sanction them – a move the entire EU could take, if it chose to. But just about the only alternative markets that can cover rising European demand for exactly these raw materials is other authoritarian regimes. Paul Hockenos reviews.

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Since Ukraine Invasion, Energy Security and Climate Policy are One

Europe can hurt the Russian war machine – and help the climate at the same time. Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked a wide-ranging revamping of energy policy in Europe with a new, no-holds-barred objective: to wean the continent from Russian fossil fuels — as rapidly and comprehensively as possible — and accelerate the continent’s green energy transition. Paul Hockenos explains.

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