Interdependence Revisited: Policy Diffusion, Infrastructure Links and Energy Policy Change

Abstract

As the EU member states strive to steer national energy transitions, their policies expose their neighbors with previously unknown political, market and infrastructure pressures. The panel focuses on the case of the German Energiewende, one of the most important phenomena in the contemporary energy landscape. It aims for a comprehensive transition from a fossil-fuel and nuclear powered economy to one built on renewable and sustainable forms of energy (Hake et al., 2015). Taking place in a highly industrialized country (Buchan, 2012) with only average conditions for operating renewable sources of energy (Hoefnagels et al., 2017), the Energiewende is arguably one of the most ambitious transitions towards renewable energy to date (Quitzow et al., 2016). A transformation of such magnitude naturally cannot take place without affecting other countries (Tews, 2015). However, Much like the Energiewende itself, the research reflecting on Germany’s shift so far has been mostly inward-looking and the research on foreign and external aspects of the Energiewende has been scarce (Keating, 2016; Sattich, 2014). Other than the topics of the economic spillover of policies such as the nuclear phase-out (Bruninx et al., 2013) or deployment of renewables as a result of feed-in tariff policies (Mulder and Scholtens, 2016; ), only a few cross-border issues have gained attention over the past years. These include the interplay between German and European energy policies (Solorio et al., 2014), potential international cooperation to give the renewables-dominated German market more flexibility (Gullberg et al., 2014), and the effects of unpredictable renewable production on the grid stability of neighboring countries (Singh et al., 2016). This panel delivers a more thorough evaluation of the cross-border effects induced by the Energiewende. More specifically, it looks at the ways through which the energy strategies and energy policies of various Germany-neighboring countries adjusted and reacted to the Energiewende. The overall goal of the panel is to inform our understanding of the concepts of interdependence and policy diffusion.