Without the alternative of plentiful and cheap natural gas supplies and facing ever-higher petroleum prices, Berlin, Germany, the capital and city-state that serves as an icon for a nation still adjusting to reunification, has set a decidedly high goal for making itself Europe’s clean transportation capital. With the byproducts of natural gas being less viable here, Berlin envisions an electrified transportation system.

Setting a very stretching — skeptics would say unrealistic — goal of having more than 1 million clean (mostly electric) vehicles by 2020, the German capital has established an agency to make the pursuit of faster, more efficient and cleaner transportation overall an economic driver for the city’s 3.5 million inhabitants and broader (6 million population) Brandenburg-Berlin region.

Unabashedly, officials in Berlin told NGI last week that their plan is to electrify the transportation sector without having to rely on traditional power from natural gas, coal or nuclear electric generation plants. Public transportation, energy utilities and auto manufacturers are slowing coming on board, they said.

All of Berlin’s future transportation projects are tied to green energy, said Gernot Lobenberg, head of Berlin’s Agency for Electromobility.

“There is no more discussion about green and classic [traditional] sources of energy having to share the load,” Lobenberg said.

Ideally, this agency’s goal together with a strong city/state-led initiative to develop a Silicon Valley-like reputation for energy technology advances will permit Berlin to “produce, consume and store” all of its energy in Brandenburg-Berlin.

To date, nearly 60% of the state of Brandenburg’s available land, which forms a “donut” shape around Berlin, is devoted to wind farms, according to Lobenberg.

An outgrowth of his agency is an initiative to combine public and private transportation into a one-card rental/pay system covering trains, trams, the subway, bicycles and autos. “The trick is how do you integrate all of these electric conveyances to the power grid,” said Frank Wolter, head of the program called “BeMobility.” The long-term goal would be to have almost no privately owned automobile for individuals, who would rent their transportation needs on a day-to-day basis.

Wolter’s vision for transportation cries out for a decentralized energy system that conflicts with today’s grid-connected centralized focus for electric generation. It also expects little or no support from traditional gas or coal-fired generation.

“What we are trying here is a new, decentralized energy model,” said Wolter, while giving a visitor a tour of his sprawling campus in southwest Berlin on the site of a late 19th/early 20th century coal gasification plant and gas storage facility now converted to a mini-green energy test site. Still known in the city as Berlin’s “Gasometer” site, it includes small wind and solar generation facilities producing power for various electric-powered vehicles, bicycles and other conveyances and sending excess supplies to the grid.

Like many other contemporary energy stakeholders in Berlin, Wolter believes that during the next 40 years Germany will move to 100% renewable sources for its electricity. It is currently at about 17%.

Transportation and “mobility” makes up one of four “clusters” that Berlin’s city-state government is focusing on as it attempts to greatly accelerate economic development in the German capital through an economic development effort headed by a privately held firm, Berlin Partner, that holds a contract with the city/state. Energy is another cluster in the mix.

In both areas, green energy is emphasized because it plays into what Berliners consider their strengths — research universities and a growing list of high-technology companies, according to Martin Schipper, the head of energy technology for TSB Innovations Berlin GmbH and part of the Berlin-Brandenburg Cluster Energy Technologies program that began at the start of this year.

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