EnerTrend

"Megatrends" are long-term, global developments that significantly shape our society. For a successful realisation of the energy transition it is thus necessary to analyze interfaces with such megatrends. Which megatrends are of importance especially for the energy transition in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)? Which specific interfaces can be identified?

Within the framework of a meta-analysis based on existing literature and different case studies the research team of the Virtual Institute (VI) explores the socio-economic and socio-cultural interdependencies among the energy transition in NRW and respective megatrends. The project is going to work on the following key questions:     

• Which megatrends are of specific relevance for the implementation of the energy transition?
• Which interdependencies exist between megatrends, precisely between exogenous driving forces (landscape) of the energy transition and endogenous development dynamics of the energy system?
• Which role does the state of NRW have in the search for integrated solutions ? Which specific framework conditions prevail in NRW?
• What are regionally adapted approaches, in order to accept and utilize the challenges and opportunities of megatrends for the implementation of the energy transition in NRW?

The findings of the research activities serve as impulses for the network of the Virtual Institute "Transformation – Energy Transition NRW”, consisting of ten member institutions. Moreover, the findings are supposed to be translated into specific recommendations for action of politics and administration, in order to include these into decision-making processes.

The Virtual Institute "Transformation – Energy Transition NRW" supports the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2013 in implementing the energy transition and focuses in particular on socio-economic challenges. The Wuppertal Institute, in cooperation with the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) jointly coordinate and lead the project.