Agora Energiewende

Agora Energiewende
legal form	profit company
Seat	Berlin
management	Patrick Graichen
Number of employees	30th
Branch	Energy transition , think tank
Website	agora-energiewende.de
	As of March 29, 2018

The Agora Energiewende is a think tank that has set itself the task of looking for compromise solutions that are suitable for the majority in the restructuring of the electricity sector within the energy transition. The name Agora refers to the Greek meeting place of the same name. The Agora energy revolution has within a few years a reputation as a major player in the field of energy policy made.

The founding director Rainer Baake moved to the Ministry of Economic Affairs as State Secretary in 2014. The current director Patrick Graichen was previously responsible for energy policy in the Ministry of the Environment.

In the meantime there is also the Agora Verkehrswende, which is working on concepts for the traffic turnaround.

Working method

The approximately 30 employees assign studies to research institutes and prepare their own analyzes and studies. These work results serve as a template for discussion for the Council of the Agora . The declared goal of the Agora Energiewende is to develop a common perspective on how an electricity system based on renewable energies can be designed.

Council of the Agora

The central body is the Agora Council. The members of the council meet regularly and meet according to the rules of the Chatham House Rules , which means that statements made by individual members may not be quoted together with their names.

Composition of the Agora Energiewende Council (as of June 3, 2019)
Chairperson Hans-Joachim Ziesing - Managing Director of AG Energiebilanzen eV, member of the Federal Government's Commission for Monitoring the Energy Transition Patrick Graichen - Director of the Agora Energiewende
Members Federal and state politics: Andreas Feicht - State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics Jochen Flasbarth - State Secretary in the Federal Environment Ministry Mark Helfrich - Member of the Bundestag (CDU) Oliver Krischer - Member of the Bundestag (Alliance 90 / The Greens) Christian Level - Member of the State Parliament (SPD), State Minister for Energy (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) Johann Saathoff - Member of the Bundestag (SPD) Michael Theurer - Member of the Bundestag (FDP) Franz Untersteller - Member of the Bundestag (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), State Minister for the Environment (Baden-Württemberg) International: Mechthild Wörsdörfer - International Energy Agency Federal authorities: Jochen Homann - President of the Federal Network Agency Science: Ottmar Edenhofer - u. a. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)	Companies: Florian Bieberbach - Stadtwerke München (Stadtwerke) Vera Brenzel - E.ON (Energy Industry) Erk Thorsten Heyen - Wacker Chemie (electricity-intensive companies) Stefan Kapferer - Federal Association of Energy and Water Management (energy industry) Holger Krawinkel - MVV Energie (Stadtwerke) Klaus-Dieter Maubach - Encavis (Renewable Energy Sector ) Manon van Beek - Tennet TSO GmbH (transmission system operator) Lothar Schulze - Windwärts Energie (Renewable Energy Sector ) Unions: Wolfgang Lemb - IG Metall Michael Vassiliadis - IG BCE Environmental and consumer associations: Antje von Broock - BUND Udo Sieverding - Consumer Center NRW

financing

The Mercator Foundation and the European Climate Foundation (ECF) are behind the organization . Legally, it is a division of the non-profit Smart Energy for Europe Platform (SEFEP) gGmbH. Its shareholders are the Mercator Foundation, based in Essen, and the European Climate Foundation, based in The Hague.

Initially, the think tank was financed with a budget of 14 million euros over a project period from 2012 to 2017. In 2016, the financing was extended for another five years until 2022 with a budget of 15 million euros. The extension of the funding was preceded by an evaluation by the NewClimate Institute in Cologne , in which it was stated that "the way of working was obviously balanced in most cases, as both industry and environmental associations are equally dissatisfied with the proposals."

Proposal to phase out coal-fired power generation

Shortly after the UN climate summit in Paris at the end of 2015, the Agora Energiewende presented a proposal at the beginning of 2016 to phase out coal-based power generation, which provides for the brown and hard coal power plants in the Ruhr area and Lusatia to be gradually shut down by 2040.

Similar to the procedure for nuclear power plants, the proposal provides that the oldest power plants should be taken off the grid first. Starting in 2018, around 3,000 megawatts of power are to be shut down each year. This corresponds to 3–4 large power plant units per year.

Central points in this proposal are:

that no new coal power plant will be approved
that there is no longer a new open pit
that planning security should be established

The proposal to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2040 is based on the 2-degree target , as it was before the Paris climate summit.

Regular publications

Agorameter

The hourly electricity generation in Germany is shown with the agorameter. The data are published with a delay of approx. 2–3 hours and are divided into wind, sun, water and biomass for renewable energies, and nuclear power, lignite, hard coal and natural gas for conventional power plants. In addition, the German electricity demand is shown.

The Agorameter hit the headlines on Pentecost Sunday 2016. On the basis of preliminary figures, a full supply of renewable energies was shown. The final figures could not confirm this result.

The Agorameter is a recognized database and is regularly quoted when reporting on the share of renewable energies.