Die politische Ökonomie der Energie- und Verkehrstransformation

The article interprets the German “Energiewende” as a contested process. The complex articulation of economic developments, civil society disputes and state policies are analyzed from a political-economy perspective. The central argument is that in recent years the dynamics towards a renewable energy regime in the electricity sector have been slowed down. This is accompanied by a shift of the character of the “Energiewende” from a highly contested process of questioning existing power structures to a process of an orderly and gradual transition, remaining within the framework of the German model of “Coordinated Capitalism”, which is geared towards export markets. In the transport sector, however, the dominance of fossil fuels remains unchanged. In order to draw a comprehensive picture of the energy transformation, the potentials and restrictions of the transformation towards a post-fossil mobility regime are discussed.