EnerAct Management

The EnerAct project is developing concepts for implementing the energy transition at local and regional level in North Rhine-Westphalia. On the one hand, the context of action is shaped by the technical challenges. On the other hand, the actors in the regions and municipalities are confronted with a series of overarching political, technical and cultural developments that are driven forward by dynamics beyond the energy transition. The overlapping of the energy transition by megatrends such as digitalisation or demographic change requires more than ever integrated problem-solving concepts for the implementation of the energy transition. In addition to the technical aspects, those concepts need to focus on the socio-economic characteristics of the individual regions and municipalities, while taking possible changes caused by the megatrends into account.

The project is dedicated to this need for orientation knowledge and specific approaches. It's consortium develops concepts for implementation that address the challenges of the transformation of the energy system in NRW.

The following research questions will be investigated:

• What are obstacles for the implementation of the energy transition in NRW with regard to central interfaces between technical and social issues?
• How should the implementation projects be designed to address central transformation challenges of the energy transition in NRW?
• How can stakeholders from politics, business and society be brought together to implement the identified projects?
• Which basic conditions must be given for the realization of the implementation projects?

The project is funded by the Mercator Foundation.

Project Consortium (Core Team):
Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (Lead), Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT, Institute for Work and Technology