On behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection in Germany, eclareon will continue to advise and support the “energy solutions – made in Germany” offers to German companies in the renewable energy sector in the fields of production and green hydrogen in 2024.

The eclareon team is looking forward to the realisation of numerous exciting events and delegation trips and to working with various implementation partners of the German government.

Interested German companies can find out more about the current offers at www.german-energy-solutions.de. You can register for the events and trips organised by eclareon in November and December 2023 here (in German only). We will publish the new offers for 2024 for German companies as soon as possible.

For further information, please contact Kai Unger, ku@eclareon.com.

In the period of September 2020 until mid-2023, eclareon, together with Oeko-Institute, WindEurope and SolarPower Europe, were implementing a project for DG ENER named “Technical support for RES policy development and implementation – Simplification of permission and administrative procedures for RES installations”, abbreviated and known as RES Simplify. The project was officially brought to an end in May 2023.

The project aim was to facilitate and accelerate administrative and permit-granting procedures of renewable energy projects across EU Member States. Given this, the project consortium scrutinised such procedures across the EU. These were subsequently evaluated based on the developed performance indicators. The main results together with measures identified as good practices were further examined and disseminated through the series of 52 stakeholder engagement activities. The events included sectoral surveys, virtual workshops, national events, bilateral meetings, and presentations in public events, among others. On top of that, the partners monitored the easing of permit-granting procedures in line with the obligation for the transposition of Arts. 15-17 of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). Additional measures going beyond the RED II (e.g., overriding public interest principle, identification of suitable areas, positive silence for RE projects) were also further discussed. Based on the aforementioned deliverables, the partners developed recommendations and identified best practices for RES admission procedures. Last but not least, an outline for the optimised processes and supporting IT infrastructure that are compliant with RED II was prepared.

The RES Simplify Final Report (in English), which includes all the details, can be found here.

In the framework of the Pakistan-German Renewable Energy Forum (PGREF), a fifteen-member delegation visits the Berlin Energy Transition Dialoge, several side events and participates in workshops with Berlin experts to learn about urban solar policy instruments such as the Masterplan Solarcity Berlin and about smart sustainable mobility and transport concepts.

PGREF, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ),  supports Pakistani and German businesses and think tanks to develop mutually beneficial cooperation for successful renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in Pakistan.

eclareon supports the lead consultant INTEGRATION environment & energy in the conception of the PGREF and since 2022 has been working with the PGREF team to set up various task forces to promote bilateral cooperation. The current delegation is composed of participants of the task forces “Smart cities”, “Net-zero Industry” and representatives of the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB).

The Urban Innovation Forum, formerly Urban Energy Forum, will take place as an official side event of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue on 30 March at Drivery, Studio 22, Mariendorfer Damm 1, 12099 Berlin. Participation is free of charge, registration is required. Further information is available at https://www.urbaninnovation.berlin/urban-innovation-forum-2023.

The forum is organised by the Berlin-Brandenburg Energy Network e.V. (BEN) and took place for the first time in 2018 on the initiative of eclareon.

For companies from Berlin and Brandenburg interested in the BEN, Managing Director and BEN President Christoph Urbschat will be available on 30 March between 12 and 2 p.m. as part of B2B matchmaking. After successful registration, appointments with all participants can be booked here: https://uif-2023.b2match.io/.

The 9th Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue (BETD) will be held on 28-29 March 2023 at Federal Foreign Office in Berlin.  More than 1,000 participants, including numerous foreign and energy ministers, state secretaries and other high-ranking speakers, will gather in the German capital in one week.

The event is hosted and supported by the German Federal Government and is a joint initiative of the German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE), the German Solar Association (BSW), the German Energy Agency (dena) and eclareon.

In the past years the BETD has become a leading international forum for key stakeholders of the energy sector. High-level policymakers, industry, science and civil society are given the opportunity to share their experiences and ideas on a safe, affordable and environmentally responsible global energy transition.

More information about 9^th BETD at https://www.energydialogue.berlin/.

Green hydrogen plays an increasingly important role as an energy carrier for a global energy transition, offering enormous opportunities both for the decarbonization of Germany and for the socio-economic development of partner countries of German development cooperation. In addition to the development of domestic production, the import of green hydrogen will play an important role in Germany. For these imports, sustainability criteria in particular must be defined and taken into account in addition to economic criteria.

In this context, the study conducted by eclareon on behalf of GIZ pursued the goal of examining existing potential studies for green hydrogen with regard to the consideration of potential criteria relevant to development policy. At the same time, an indicator system for developmental sustainability criteria was developed and its suitability for the evaluation of country potentials for the development of a hydrogen economy was assessed. The indicators were applied as examples to four partner countries of German international cooperation that are already implementing activities in the field of green hydrogen. These countries are Brazil, Chile, Morocco and South Africa.

The study can be downloaded in German here.

On 01 November 2022, we had the pleasure to welcome German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and other high-ranking guests during the inauguration ceremony of our new solar school “School No. 60” in Tashkent. The solar school in Tashkent is already the fourth solar school in Central Asia to be included in the growing solar school network. As part of the „Solar Schools“ project funded by the German Foreign Office, schools in Central Asia and the Caucasus are equipped with a PV system, which is installed by a local solar company and then integrated into German and physics lessons. At the inauguration ceremony, three solar suitcases were handed over to the school – with experiments on solar energy and other exciting activities, the students of the solar schools will be trained and encouraged to actively shape the global energy transition.

Further information on the project is available on the project website www.solar-schools.org.

The BLUE PLANET Berlin Water Dialogues are going into the next round!

This year’s edition on 22 November 2022 will revolve around the topic of artificial intelligence and discuss what opportunities and risks it poses for the international water sector. The BLUE PLANET is an established event series and was launched in 2011 with the aim of providing a platform for the exchange of knowledge, ideas and experiences to improve the global water situation. The conference takes place online and serves as a forum for representatives from politics, business, science and society to discuss approaches for future-oriented and sustainable water resource management.

This is the third time eclareon is involved in organising the conference: We cordially invite you to participate. Registration is possible via the following link: https://blueplanetberlin-event.de/events/5c4aecb25b654d56

On May 18, 2022, the European Commission (DG ENER) published the report titled “Technical support for RES policy development and implementation – Simplification of permission and administrative procedures for RES installations (RES Simplify),” prepared by the international consulting firm eclareon GmbH in collaboration with the Öko-Institut e.V. and two European associations for renewable energy – WindEurope and SolarPower Europe.

The aim of the report is to provide insight into the key obstacles that hinder the proliferation of renewable energy utilization technologies in approval and grid connection procedures. Furthermore, it discusses best practice examples from EU member states, as well as Iceland and Norway, and provides general best practice recommendations that can be promoted regarding the approval of renewable energy installations and their connection to the grid. Finally, it outlines how member states can establish optimized processes and supportive IT infrastructure that align with the relevant requirements of the revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). In addition to the main report, the consortium has produced 29 comprehensive national reports describing approval procedures and associated obstacles and best practices at the national level.

Currently, the consortium is disseminating and promoting the identified best practices with policymakers and regulatory authorities, renewable energy associations, and representatives of the private sector to gather ideas and proposals for further improving approval procedures in EU countries. Feedback from these discussions will contribute to EU-level policy recommendations aimed at further optimizing approval procedures for renewable energy projects, thereby contributing to the achievement of ambitious renewable energy goals at both the member state and EU levels by 2030 and beyond.

You can find the main report for RES Simplify here.

The national reports can be found here.