Culture and Climate Change – Humanities and Social Sciences

More wind turbines, high-voltage power lines and monocultures for biogas plants - is the turnaround in Germany's energy policy going to be to the detriment of Germany's countryside? Conservationist and winner of the Right Livelihood Award, Prof. Michael Succow, explains whether this is going to happen.

Prof. Succow, the phasing out of Germany's nuclear energy plants is in the bag, a new energy policy is on its way in. Are you happy about this?

In my opinion gearing our lives to the use of regenerative energies is the only path human civilisation can take if we are to survive into the future. We must however adopt an ecological approach to the way we deal with these renewable energies.

What difficulties are we going to encounter?

Renewable energies such as wind turbines, for example, are going to take up a lot of space. It is however more a matter of saving energy - for saving energy means protecting our natural habitat and the countryside. The more sensibly every individual deals with energy, the less space we will have to use.

What would you then recommend every individual should do to save energy?

If we start using wind energy on a grand scale, electric cars will be one of the really big challenges. Wind energy is available both day and night. The power produced by wind plants can be easily stored at night and then used for example to charge the batteries of electric cars. Another challenge is the energy-saving house: plus energy houses that produce their own energy are not just a mere vision, they have already been built.

…and on a larger economic scale?

Harnessing the power of the sun is an ecological task that we have to get a grip on as soon as possible. The sun does not send us any bills and the supply is unlimited.

Don't you think that here in Germany we should be focusing more on wind energy? In comparison the amount of energy we get from the sun is not that overwhelming.

Yes, but there is still so much to do. China's engineers have already surpassed us in the field of photovoltaic systems...

The big corporations are having a hard time

The world's biggest polluter is doing research into photovoltaic systems?

China is even the country that makes the greatest investments in the field of renewable energies and does a great deal of intensive research. What did research into atomic power cost Germany? If only that amount of money were to be invested in renewable energies ... This however is where the big corporations have a hard time. This has led to many development schemes being put on hold, as was the case with photovoltaics, which I consider to be a serious error of judgement. After all, scientific progress made in the field of renewable energies could bring about enormous business advantages in a very short time. The cutbacks in research funding often meant the end for companies in Germany, and that is why it is all happening in China at the moment. Even in Germany the sun is powerful enough to be used efficiently. We need both photovoltaic systems and the wind. Geothermal heat also offers us so many possibilities, not to mention the utilisation of bio-mass.

What are the prospects for the production of biogas? You are, as is known, no friend of maize cultivation ...

The cultivation of maize for the production of biogas is a case of serious mismanagement. Maize comes from the warmer climes of America. This why in Germany maize cannot be sown until May and has to be harvested before the first frost. This presents the maize with the incredible task of having to grow three metres high in such a short period of time. This really saps the soil of all its strength. After the harvest the ground then lies fallow. Mother Nature however did not provide for leaving large expanses of soil open to the elements. For half a year erosion caused by wind and water takes its toll on the soil. As the maize farmers receive so many subsidies, they have no intention at all of growing another crop between the maize harvests or introducing a system of crop rotation. On top of all this, huge amounts of fertilizer are used and this contaminates the ground water.

Can bio-mass be used at all then to produce green electricity?

Our urban cultures and developed areas produce enormous amounts of bio-mass that we have hardly been able to utilise up to now. These masses could be processed in a system of decentralised small power plants. Lowland marshes and fens that have been severely drained and are now in dire need of rewetting, due to climatic reasons, would be ideal ecological locations responsible for the production of bio-mass. In winter reed could be harvested there to produce heating pellets. A fen that is wet again and growing produces peat, which binds CO2, and becomes a biotope. The mainstay of every form of land use has to be the preservation of its eco-system's functions. Nevertheless when it comes to energy production the emphasis should remain on solar and wind power and geothermal heat.

Offshore wind parks keep the pollution of the horizon at a minimum

What is to be done about wind turbines - where should they be placed? In the water or in the forests, as some of Germany's southern federal states are planning?

The North of Germany is blessed frequently with lots of wind and can therefore produce a lot of energy. In the case of offshore wind parks the pollution of the horizon is kept at a minimum, because the parks are far out at sea. The south of Germany however also has to be supplied with wind energy. Producing the energy locally should be the top priority in this case. This means that energy should not be transported via gigantic power lines. Two per cent of the area of Germany would be enough for the building of wind energy plants. To do this they could make use of former military zones, abandoned industrial sites and the land alongside railway tracks and motorways for these areas are not intact stretches of countryside. This should not happen however in forests that are still thriving in harmony with nature. Society has to comprehend that pristine stretches of countryside with their stillness and wide open spaces have to be preserved both as recreational areas as well as for their stabilising effect.

On your Internet site there is a quote by Rudolf Schreiber: "The conservation of nature has to be developed into a system of protection for nature, the economy and society". Is Germany able to put this into practice?

There is still room here for common sense. I am however glad that I live in a country that is not indifferent to what is going to happen to it in the future.