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Energy landscapes of today and tomorrow

Edited by: Daniela Thrän, Eric Gawel, Dagmar Fiedler

The transition of energy systems toward renewable energy sources (RES) is a key issue for sustainable development.

To execute this transformation, a tremendous number of renewable energy provision as well as infrastructure units are necessary. Thus, new energy landscapes will emerge changing energy provision from “energy for space” to “energy from space”. Such energy landscapes not only include traditional landscape patterns, but also renewable resource potentials, conversion units and related infrastructure, and also humans being affected by the transition in very different ways

In light of this, addressing the manifold challenges connected with newly emerging energy landscapes and exploring possible solutions was the focus of the UFZ Energy Days 2018 held in Leipzig from the 24–25 September 2018.

This article collection originates from a selection of papers based upon presentations at the Energy Days. It aims at fostering the exchange between energy research at the UFZ and the national and international scientific community and will be open for further submissions.


  1. To achieve climate targets, a transition to low-carbon energy production is necessary. However, conflicts between different interests, values and priorities, particularly at the community level, can constrain ...

    Authors: Sybille Reitz, Lauren Goshen and Dörte Ohlhorst
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2022 12:39
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. The German energy transition strategy calls for a reform of the German energy sector. As a result, the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) passed in 2000 is widely regarded as successful legislation for ...

    Authors: Xueqing Yang, Yang Liu, Daniela Thrän, Alberto Bezama and Mei Wang
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2021 11:6
    Content type: Original article Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in Energy, Sustainability and Society 2021 11:11

  3. The bioeconomy is nowadays widely proclaimed by governments and corporations around the world as a new paradigm for a sustainable economy. Essentially, it broadly denotes the promotion, development and establi...

    Authors: Thomas Vogelpohl
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2021 11:3
    Content type: Review Published on:

  5. By 2030, the German transport sector needs to achieve additional greenhouse gas savings of 67 million tonnes CO2-eq. and further progress requires swiftly implementable solutions. The fermentation of cereal straw...

    Authors: André Brosowski, Ralf Bill and Daniela Thrän
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2020 10:42
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  8. Wind power forecasts of the expected wind feed-in for the next hours or days are necessary to integrate the generated volatile wind energy into power systems. Most forecasting models predict in some sense the ...

    Authors: Janosch Henze, Malte Siefert, Sascha Bremicker-Trübelhorn, Nazgul Asanalieva and Bernhard Sick
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2020 10:15
    Content type: Original Article Published on:

  9. The Paris Climate Agreement requires a rapid and efficient shift to renewable energies and a decarbonization of the energy system. Combined heat and power provision from biomass is one way to efficiently provi...

    Authors: M. Steubing, M. Dotzauer, T. Zakaluk, B. Wern, F. Noll and D. Thraen
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2020 10:14
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  10. The transition of the energy system to renewable energy depends on how successfully the national objectives can be implemented at the lower planning levels. Germany pursues an incentive-oriented policy that is...

    Authors: Julia Wiehe, Christina von Haaren and Anna Walter
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2020 10:10
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  11. In recent years, landscapes in many countries have been transformed by efforts to fight global warming, specifically the shift towards renewable energies such as wind power. This development has been met by gr...

    Authors: Gerd Lintz and Markus Leibenath
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2020 10:5
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  12. Synthetic fuels based on renewable hydrogen and CO2 are a currently highly discussed piece of the puzzle to defossilize the transport sector. In this regard, CO2 can play a positive role in shaping a sustainable ...

    Authors: Ralf Peters, Maximilian Decker, Lea Eggemann, Steffen Schemme, Felix Schorn, Janos Lucian Breuer, Stefan Weiske, Joachim Pasel, Remzi Can Samsun and Detlef Stolten
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2020 10:4
    Content type: Review Published on:

  13. Germany has set ambitious goals for the reduction of greenhouse gases. The decarbonisation of the energy system has been in focus. An important means to achieve this is the increased utilisation of wind energy...

    Authors: Philip Gauglitz, Sven Schicketanz and Carsten Pape
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2019 9:47
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  14. The availability of land for the installation of wind power turbines is restricted by numerous factors. Besides climatic conditions, the deployment of wind energy is limited by technical, social, economic, and...

    Authors: Felix Nitsch, Olga Turkovska and Johannes Schmidt
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2019 9:45
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  15. In the context of the German energy transition, the number of domestic households covering part of their electricity consumption from their own photovoltaic system is constantly increasing. Some even use batte...

    Authors: Kai Kappner, Peter Letmathe and Philipp Weidinger
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2019 9:44
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  16. To prevent negative effects on the cultural landscape through land abandonment or agricultural intensification, innovative solutions towards more sustainable land use are required. Local bioenergy systems usin...

    Authors: Maria Busse, Rosemarie Siebert and Nico Heitepriem
    Citation: Energy, Sustainability and Society 2019 9:36
    Content type: Original article Published on: