The Germany energy crisis, created by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, caused the country to rethink renewable energy goals and Germany’s energy policy.
2021 was a busy year for my husband and I. We got married, sold the house and started preparing for the opportunity of a lifetime: living in Germany. My husband was offered an international assignment through work, and I hopped along for the ride.
Living here has its perks and drawbacks. Only a few people have the opportunity to see another side of the world, but it can feel alienating. We are so far away from our friends and family, and my German skills could improve. Living as an expat can be incredibly stressful. When stressed, it’s important to remember to step outside of it and look at things from a different perspective. I’ve stepped out numerous times since we moved in February 2022. What I noticed was astonishing!
Many fields by the Autobahn are full of windmills. Homes, including those centuries-old, are topped with solar panels. Streetlamps grow dim when no one is around. As you walk through town, you’ll see many neighbors hang-drying clothes. Many waste bins specify which type of waste to throw in them. Germans seem to live greener than Americans, and we are doing our part to live as green as they do. We learned a few things along the way.
Germany Energy Policy
Environmental protection is a big deal here; you can see that reflected as you drive through the countryside surrounded by rolling hills of greenery. Some parts of the Autobahn have bridges topped with grass and plants, which help wildlife cross the Autobahn safely without touching asphalt. It also helps lessen the chance of roadkill occupying roads.
Germany has many environmental protection laws proven effective, making it one of the leading countries in climate policies. The Sustainable Governance Indicators rates Germany 6th for environmental policies and 10th in the quality of the environment out of 180 countries. Environmental policy became a hot topic for candidates in the 2021 federal election, focusing heavily on climate-related policies and transitioning to a “social-ecological market economy.” This type of economy is similar to a circular economy.
Germany is one of the leaders in climate policies because its environmental protection laws are constitutional. Germany was the first European country to create a National Climate Law outlining its overall goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2045. This climate law was included in its federal Constitution when it became law in 2021.

Russian Invasion of Ukraine Creates Germany Energy Crisis
February 2022 was a familiar month for many people: the Russian invasion of Ukraine. When we first moved to Germany, a few English-speaking news channels covered the unraveling invasion. While watching the coverage, we discovered the possibility of energy insecurity in Germany. Germany halted approving a new gas pipeline that would directly route Russian oil to the European nation to limit dependency on Russian imports. Gas prices skyrocketed. My husband’s car has a 3-cylinder tank but can cost over 50 Euros. The costly effects of limiting dependence on Russian exports encouraged reformation.
According to Clean Energy Wire, 2022 became “the year of energy reform ” for Germany. The German government created new sustainability laws to increase renewable energy production and decrease carbon emissions. Two major legislative packages were introduced for the continued growth of renewable energy. The first was a revision to the Renewable Energy Act (EEG). The surcharge on renewable power would be cut earlier in the summer rather than sometime in 2023 to incentivize people to get electric vehicles or heating, which would become a way to help residents save money. More revisions were introduced to the EEG to increase renewable energy production, lower the rise in climate temperatures, increase the shares of renewable energy to 80 percent by 2030, and increase public interest.
During the recent energy crisis, many European countries sought to limit supply and demand and save energy. For example, the German government created a policy focused on companies and big buildings. Owners of big buildings need to optimize “hydronic balancing,” the process of “optimizing the water flow in a heating system,” potentially reducing energy consumption by 21 terawatt-hours (TWh) and saving the country about 4.2 billion Euros per year. Landlords are obligated to mandatory heating system maintenance and optimization to ensure energy use doesn’t exceed a specific wattage per year. According to an article from Politico, this type of efficiency can increase productivity while lowering costs, improving energy security, and making the path towards green living easier.
Becoming Green Takes Time
Germany has a long history of their initiative for green living and sustainability. From the 1950s to 1970s, Germany faced energy crises that propelled them to create laws to combat increasing coal and gas prices.
The German government enacted the “Energy Security Act” in 1973, which offered ways to limit the use of gas during the oil crisis. The concept of “car-free” Sundays was adopted. This concept is not as prevalent today, but many businesses are closed, and people go for walks or ride bikes to occupy their free time. This law sparked a “revolution” to find alternative sources of energy. The Federal Ministry of Research created a program to study renewable energy. When the oil crisis ended, the program only consisted of a 2 percent cap on renewable energy consumption, which lasted over 20 years.
In the 1980s, the first windmill farm was installed in the northern region of Western Germany, one of the first countries to do this in response to the environmental impact of air pollution from coal mines. Coal mines emit sulfur into the air, resulting in acid rain affecting over a third of Germany’s forests.

The incident at Chernobyl was another event that irked the adopted “ecological consciousness” of Germans, according to Planete Energies. The damaging impact of the nuclear power plant invoked Germans to lobby for alternative energy sources. No significant changes to the operations of nuclear power plants in Germany happened until the early 2000s. The government, led by the Social Democrat/Green Party, enacted new laws that would gradually shut down nineteen nuclear power plants by 2021, making way for more renewable energy production.
When Angela Merkel became chancellor in 2009, she and members of the Christian Democratic Union Party gave an extension to the power plants to shut down by 2030. The extension was cut short in 2011 after a nuclear meltdown in Japan, which persuaded the chancellor to immediately shut down eight nuclear power plants and create an Ethics Commission to determine whether the switch to renewable energy could happen without risking energy insecurity. A report from the commission concluded that it would be possible.
Germany Renewable Energy Goals
Renewable energy now accounts for almost half of Germany’s energy consumption. The recent rise may be due to the reduction of Russian-imported gas, but it falls short of Germany’s goals of integrating renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions. In 2021, about 256 TWh of renewable energy was generated compared to the goal of about 269 TWh. The hope is to produce over 600 TWh by 2030. Berlin created laws to loosen restrictions on renewable energy to allow the nation’s capital to produce more solar panels and windmills, hoping to become carbon neutral by 2045.
It took decades for Germany to get to where it is today, and it still has goals it wants to achieve in another couple of decades. Taking things one step at a time can lead you in the right direction toward living green and eventually help you achieve your goal of living green.
Jackson Lebedun is an independent journalist who has written articles about sustainable living in Germany. He lived there for two years with his husband and dog, but they now reside in Illinois. In his spare time, Jackson likes to frolic in nature and make friends with trees.