Edited by: Prof Erik Gawel, Prof Armin Grunwald, Prof Daniela Thrän
The transition of the German energy system, the so called “Energiewende” is often regarded a success in terms of increasing the share of renewable energy sources (RES) in total electricity consumption. With increasing RES shares, however, a variety of sustainability challenges have become evident: the direct costs for electricity consumers, concerns associated with the security of energy supply and the spatio-ecological and spatio-social effects of RES deployment (land use conflicts, public acceptance, NIMBY). Furthermore, policy coordination across scales (municipalities, Länder, Germany, EU) seems to be rather weak.