Old and young create the energy turnaround together

Just a few days after announcing two new solar packages, the federal cabinet has now also approved an accelerated approval process for photovoltaics and wind power. The year 2023 can be a good year for the energy transition.

Solar energy in Germany has already doubled in the last six years. The German government’s goal of organizing around 80 percent renewable electricity by 2030 is feasible. Even 100 percent is possible in seven years. If the energy turnaround is really wanted, it is actually quite simple. The sun and wind, hydropower, bioenergy and heating provide almost infinite energy. The sun alone sends us 15,000 times more energy than the entire human race consumes today.

Sun and wind do not send a bill

Not only the material, but also the techniques for its production have been available for a long time and have largely been developed in Germany by outstanding researchers, scientists and engineers. And best of all, renewable energies are now cheaper worldwide than the old climate-damaging fossil fuels. What an opportunity: ecology and economy complement each other. It’s clear as daylight who the future belongs to.

And another plus: My generation, the old ones, and for three years now also the young ones in the “Fridays-For-Future” movement are now working hand in hand. Nothing and no one will be able to stop us in the energy transition. Old and young create the solar energy turnaround together.

The climate activists have only apparently lost at Lützerath. Without their activism, the coal phase-out, now brought forward from 2038 to 2030, would not have been possible. As 22-year-old Fridays For Future activist Maurice Conrad says in the TAZ, “Activism creates something that the school system fails at: real empowerment.” Activism brings meaning and joy to life.

Physicist and climate researcher at the Potsdam Institute Anders Levermann says, “The problem is not as complicated as many think” (TAZ February 4, 2023). So far, descriptions like “climate catastrophe” or “climate apocalypse” have made many people despair. This will change if the federal government now finally prioritizes renewables and gets serious about climate protection. Even FDP leader Lindner has recognized renewables as “freedom energies.” Progress in renewables will also encourage many citizens, because they are citizens’ energies.

It’s not easy for the old energy companies to change their current business model and leave coal, gas and oil where it naturally is: In the ground. But the battle for Lützerath has shown that investing billions can also be attractive for them. Just two years ago, RWE had rejected the premature exit from coal. Now the phase-out of old coal must also be brought forward in eastern Germany.

We journalists also have to explain the opportunities of this transformation more than before: Far more, and above all healthier, jobs are being created with renewables than would be lost with the coal phase-out.

It’s not too late

If Germany talks more about the opportunities of renewables with its inventors and engineers, we will still succeed in making the switch in time. What an opportunity for the German economy, because the whole world has to change over. There will be no wars over sun and wind as there were over oil or gas. Renewable energies are not only energies of freedom, but also energies of peace.

Energy turnaround?

Old and young can do it together for a more peaceful world. Renewable energies create a desire for the future!

Source

FRANZ ALT 2023 | Übersetzt mit www.DeepL.com/Translator (kostenlose Version)