The Digitalizing Of Germany’s Economy

December 7, 20159 years ago Roy L Hales 1 Comment

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Originally published on the ECOreport

One of the European leaders of “Mission Innovation” announced the launch of a €230 million energy project yesterday. Sigmar Gabriel, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, unveiled SINTEG (Schaufenster intelligente Energie/ Shop window for intelligent energy) a key ingredient of the digitalizing of Germany’s economy.

The Digitalization of Germany’s Economy

The program is meant to develop the innovative technologies and processes that make the increased adoption of fluctuating renewable electricity sources possible.

According to today’s statistics from Fraunhofer, Germany’s production of wind energy is already 73.94 TWh higher than at this time last year. Solar energy generation has increased 35.96 TWh.

“SINTEG represents a significant step forward for Germany’s research and investment efforts in the energy transition,” said Thomas Grigoleit, Director of Energy and Environmental Technology at Germany Trade & Invest, the country’s economic development agency. “The amounts invested and the scope of the project should create an enormous array of sub-projects and innovative value-adding solutions for all manner of problems, while also extending the knowledge base and abilities of the many SMEs involved in these sub-projects.

“Therefore, as well as moving Germany’s overall Energiewende forward, SINTEG will create hundreds of value-adding propositions ready for export or further investment for those looking for advance in these industries.”

Storage pioneer Younicos will be taking part in the project and, in a press release, the company’s co-founder Clemens Triebel explained, “To reach climate targets and make the energy transition a success, we need to better link consumption, production and storage, as well as markets. The key to that is software that’s smart enough to measure, process and control energy with the highest levels of efficiency. In over ten years of pioneering work, we’ve developed entirely new communication approaches between the power grid, electricity market and battery plants. It is exactly this type of ICT expertise that’s needed for a new energy system.”

The Five Shop Windows

Five regions have been selected as “Shop Windows” and will submit project proposals over the next six months:

“C/sells: Großflächiges Schaufenster im Solarbogen Süddeutschland” – In Bavaria, Baden-Württemburg and Hessen, focused on optimizing production and consumption of solar energy.
“Designetz: Baukasten Energiewende – Von Einzellösungen zum effizienten System der Zukunft” – In Nordrhein-Westphalia, Rheinland-Palatinate and Saarland, focused on using solar and wind energy to supply urban and industrial centres.
“enera: Der nächste große Schritt der Energiewende” – In Lower Saxony, focused on grid services, to stabilize grids locally and improve the reliability of energy supply from renewable energies.
“NEW 4.0: Norddeutsche EnergieWende” – in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, focused on ensuring that the region will be powered by 70% regenerative energy by 2025.
“WindNODE: Das Schaufenster für intelligente Energie aus dem Nordosten Deutschlands” – All five former Eastern states and Berlin, focused on efficiently integrating renewable production into a system of power, heat, and mobility.

The Shop Windows are spread over a 2,665-square-kilometer (1,028-square-mile) area that is predominantly agricultural, “but also includes industrial centers.” According to statistics from 2013, wind and other renewable resources produced 170% of what these areas needed and the surplus was exported.

Total Investment To Reach €600 million

Germany’s Federal government has 200 business, academic and local government partners in these regions.

The participating regional authorities and private companies involved are expected to invest €1.60 for each €1.00 the Federal Ministry of Economics provides, and the total investment should reach €600 million over the next four years.

Projects are expected to start in earnest during the next six months.

Photo Credit: Eine E126 Windkraftanlage wird im Windpark Werder/Kessin/ Altentreptow in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern aufgestellt. Pressefoto WIND-projekt GmbH;