Press
Presscontact
Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW)
Lara Schultz
Phone: +49-30-884594-90
E-Mail: kommunikation@ioew.de
Press Releases
6. May 2025 | Home
Community energy: Why and how policy should promote it
More and more citizens are joining forces to generate their own energy locally. The coalition agreement between the parties CDU/CSU and SPD reinforces this commitment: they want consumers to play an active role in shaping the energy transition – for example through community energy, tenant electricity or energy sharing. Researchers from the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) and the Leuphana University of Lüneburg show what obstacles community energy still faces and how these can be removed: A policy paper by the “SteuerBoard Energie” junior research group funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the research team recommends that policymakers anchor community energy in accordance with EU directives and set targets. The framework conditions at state and federal level should also promote community energy, for example by introducing energy sharing or simplifying supplier obligations. Energy producers, consumers, and grid operators should be digitally connected to enable communication.
2. July 2024 | Home
Promoting energy communities: What policymakers should do now
Thousands of citizens are committed to the energy transition locally. They are part of energy communities and invest in locally generated renewable energy. In a recent policy paper, researchers from the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), Leuphana University Lüneburg and the Ecolog Institute demonstrate the high relevance of the energy transition from the bottom up and point out that the potential is much greater than has been exploited to date.They recommend that politicians create clear funding conditions, provide citizens with better information and reduce hurdles and bureaucracy. This is the only way to meet the European Union's targets: These stipulate that at least one energy community should be established in every town with more than 10,000 inhabitants.
29. April 2021 | Home
Accelerating the energy transition: Research Group develops smart control of the decentralised system
The German energy system is changing fundamentally: it is becoming more decentralised and self-organised, many renewable energy plants are taking the place of a few large power plants - many more actors that need to be integrated technically and organisationally into a sustainable energy system. How can this work? The junior research group SteuerBoard Energie of the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), the Leuphana University of Lüneburg and the Ecolog Institute for Social-Ecological Research and Education, with funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, is investigating how the renewable decentralised energy system can be controlled at different levels.
