E-mobility is regarded as a significant part of long-term energy concepts. When checked with reality, the goals of the German government to have 1 million electric vehicles on the streets by 2020 seem overambitious.

Flotte_vor_Braunschweiger_Schloss_kleiner (Quelle: BS Energy)
© BS Energy

A view back however can serve well to remind about the dramatic expansion of renewable energies in past. The energy concept of the German government from 2010 aimed at a 35 percentage share of renewables in the total electricity consumption by 2020, in actual numbers, 194 TWh. In 2015 a share of 31.5 percent renewable electricity with 187 TWh has indeed already been achieved 5 years prior to 2020. Suitable legal frameworks (German Renewable Energy Law) made this possible.

The development of e-mobility could well be quite similar, as the government has started to put new legal frameworks into action and to establish incentive programmes for different market players.

Currently, the development of municipal e-mobility concepts as well as studies on that topic are financially supported by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) with amounts up to 100000 €.

Municipalities in Germany are often at the forefront of achieving their energy goals in respect to renewable energy expansion and CO2-reduction. The grants of the BMVI can thus be used to develop concepts that make e-mobility an integral part of a sustainable and innovative energy and mobility concept in municipalities.

The timeframe for applying for this support is however very short-dated – until the end of January 2017 a five-page concept description has to be handed in to the BMVI. In order to allow municipalities or municipal utilities to stick to this tight timeline, the Reiner Lemoine Institute in Berlin offers a workshop on developing the required research grant application on 9th of December 2016.

With an innovative mobility concept, municipalities are able to secure sustainable value creation in their region, while municipal utilities are able to position themselves firmly in the energy landscape of the future.