Germany’s energy transition policy between national targets and decentralized responsibilities

Abstract

Germany strives to transition its energy supply system toward a high share of renewables, a development accompanied by an increasingly decentralized supply structure. The country’s energy strategy represents an influential top-down mechanism, but the process is also driven from the bottom up. The German federal states (Laender) experiment and innovate, and some explicitly strive to be forerunners in renewable energy policy. Due to different geographic, economic and demographic structures, however, they set different priorities and their strategies are not always aligned with the national strategy. In addressing these issues, this paper explores the advantages and constraints which multi-level governance poses to Germany’s transition towards a renewable energy system. It refers to the academic debate on German federalism and reinforced diffusion of renewable electricity production by horizontal and vertical dynamics in multi-level systems. In focusing on renewable energy policy at the national and subnational level, as well as their interplay, this paper asks whether national and subnational renewable energy policies are aligned hence providing for a multi-level reinforcement of the ongoing energy transition process. It shows that the Energy transition is on the one hand advanced through experimentation at the subnational level of the Laender. It claims that on the other hand the Laender risk increased inefficiencies and macroeconomic cost if they focus on an inwardly directed policy and argues for enhanced coordination efforts. It argues that the mechanisms of cooperative federalism in Germany’s renewable energy policy are inadequate with regard to the implementation of the “German Energiewende”. The present multi-level governance structure does not provide for the necessary integration of national and subnational energy policies.