CEO of ehoche GmbH, Munich

 

“Renewable energies have an impact on many areas of life, on individual energy supply as well as economic development, the global climate and international politics.”

 

Where do you see renewable energies in the year 2020?

By then, renewable energies will have become a self-evident part of life. They will be able to compete with fossil fuels and demand for the technologies will see a dramatic increase. That’s why I expect a significant leap forward in development in this sector in the coming decade, similar to the development of computers in the 1990s. But above all, the positive effects of renewables will be noticeable by 2020 – on household budgets, the development of the sector into a new leading industry, and through a reduction in emissions. All this will ensure that renewables are firmly anchored in the public consciousness, and help them to achieve their breakthrough in the decade that follows.

 

In your view, how will the power plant park of the future with renewable energies look?

The power plant park will become more modular. There will still be large power plants such as wind parks, geothermic and hydropower plants, but the central elements of electricity supply will be “virtual power plants”, or a multitude of perfectly coordinated small electricity inputters from sun, biomass, wind and water, which taken together, can supply an entire region with the energy it needs.

 

What’s your position on power plant extension?

I’m against an operations extension for nuclear power plants. Those in favour say it’s necessary to bridge the conversion period to renewable energies. The argument is attractive, but utterly wrong. Renewables will assert themselves when they are in a position to compete with fossil fuels, or when the falling price of renewables meets the rising price of fossil fuels. But nuclear power plants are operated by the same concerns that also own coal and gas-fired power plants. By granting these concerns an operations extension for nuclear plants, these would turn huge additional profits that would in turn be used to keep the price of electricity from coal and gas plants artificially low, although those prices are in actual fact on the rise. This would further delay the point at which renewables become competitive. An operations extension would therefore not help to bridge a conversion period, it would actually extend it and hamper the eventual breakthrough of renewables.

 

What’s your view of the development of renewable heat sources?

Renewable heat should always be discussed together with insulation. If the heating requirement of houses is radically reduced, solar panels, biomass heating systems and heat pumps are a convincing alternative to oil or gas heating systems. In the case of biomass in particular, the accent should be on decentralised solutions and in the case of heat pumps, these should only be run on electricity from regenerative sources. I see enormous potential in the provision of heat by cogeneration.

 

In your view, which debates over renewable energies will define the year 2009?

1. Operations extension for nuclear power plants

2. Electro-mobility

3. New debate over EEG depending on election results

 

When the day’s work is done, how do you like to relax and switch off?

I like sports, such as swimming and jobbing. I also like travelling. I like American sports cars – but one day even they’ll be available with electric motors.

 

Expertise: Photovoltaics;  solar thermal energy; biofuels; public acceptance of renewable energies; communal, private and public use of renewable energies; political frameworks and subsidies; EEG; Websites for renewable energies and energy efficiency  

 

Press enquiries: Johannes Schindler, schindler@ehoche.de, 0170-2302208