Governing the Energy Transition: Decentralized Actors, Digitalization, Financing
The Sustainable Energy System of the Future: Polycentric and Digital
For the energy transition in Germany to succeed, the energy system must be redesigned: On the one hand, many decentralized actors must be integrated, both technically and organizationally. On the other hand, the newly emerging polycentric energy system must be designed in a sustainable way - in other words, higher-level rules should focus on environmentally, economically and socially just implementation. How do current framework conditions and institutions have to change for this? In six qualifiying theses, the SteuerBoard Energie junior research group is investigating how digital applications can support this change process and what kind of financing options are available.
The Project
Digitalization
Financing
How will the transformation of the energy system be financed? SteuerBoard Energie examines different options.
Polycentricity
Many steering actors at different levels need a regulatory framework. The SteuerBoard Energie project is investigating how.
News
Two new studies: How digitalization and energy sharing can advance the energy transition in Germany
A study on digitally controlled flexibilities in the energy system by Hannes Bluhm shows that information and communication technologies (ICT) can make households more efficient, grids more stable, and renewables easier to integrate from the perspective of German market players. A study by Jan Wiesenthal analyzes energy sharing models in Germany. It shows that energy communities achieve particularly high levels of self-consumption and self-sufficiency when their electricity mix consists of 75 percent wind and 25 percent solar energy.
Life cycle assessments: New article emphasizes their value to measure environmental impacts of digitalization
A new commentary article by Hannes Bluhm et al. critically reflects on the article “Rethinking digitalization and climate: don’t predict, mitigate” by Gritsenko et al. published in the journal npj Climate Action in 2024.
Gritsenko et al. consider methods such as the life cycle assessment (LCA) to be inadequate for analyzing the environmental impact of digitalization.
More
Community energy: Why and how policy should promote it
Researchers from the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) and the Leuphana University of Lüneburg show what obstacles community energy still faces and how these can be removed: A policy paper by the “SteuerBoard Energie” junior research group funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the research team recommends policymakers what to do now.
