Renewables co-op fights Vattenfall for control of Berlin grid [View all]

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A Berlin citizens' group wants to wrest control of the city’s electricity grid in order to promote renewable energy. They accuse current operator Vattenfall of failing to seek alternatives to fossil fuels.
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The grid is currently under the control of Swedish energy giant Vattenfall. But the people in this room say the utility has failed to embrace Germany's transition to renewable energy and they want to take over grid control. The contract between the grid operator and Berlin's government runs out at the end of 2014 and the two women speaking today - Luise Neumann-Cosel and Arwen Colell - have come up with a plan.

“It was May 2011, when Luise called me up on the phone saying the concession's ending and we should buy the grid," Colell told DW in an interview. "I thought, yeah, we really should."

The pair have formed BuergerEnergie Berlin (Citizen Energy Berlin), a cooperative which is pooling investments from members in order to make a bid for grid control. Colell and Neumann-Cosel have criss-crossed the country, building their concept with input from organizations like the Elektrizitaetswerke Schoenau (Electricity Utility Schoenau), a citizens' group that operates the power grid in the German town of Schoenau.

http://www.dw.de/renewables-co-op-fights-vattenfall-for-control-of-berlin-grid/a-16811971

There is another citizens group working for control of the Berlin grid, as well as the state-owned company Berliner Staedtische Elektrizitaetswerke.

Why? According to these Berliners, ""Vattenfall is still relying on coal energy production, like we see here in Brandenburg, not far from Berlin. They also rely on nuclear power plants," said Taschner. "I don't think a company that relies on that energy production has an interest in decentralized renewable energy here in Berlin."

Energiewende is about far more than slapping a panel on a roof and claiming some FIT cash, it's about taking control. Obama will visit the city in June.