Cäcilia Gätsch, Theresa Rath, Felix Ekardt

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 20 (2022), Issue 2, Page 206 - 219

This article deals with the opportunities and obstacles of power-to-x technology for the generation of electricity-based energy carriers from renewable energies (with special consideration of green hydrogen). After a scientific-economic grounding, it is analysed which impulses for this technology are currently emanating from EU energy law (in emissions trading, marginal cost compensation, renewable energies, taxonomy, etc.) and in the course of foreseeable legal changes. In the process, own regulatory proposals will also be addressed. The article concludes with an EU foreign trade perspective on global hydrogen prospects, opportunities and limits.

Cäcilia Gätsch, Theresa Rath, Felix Ekardt

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 20 (2022), Issue 2, Page 128 - 155

This article analyses legal issues related to the promotion of renewable energies and offers a legal concept for transforming coal regions into renewable energy regions. Beyond the fact that coal regions usually offer basic technical structures suitable for transformation, this aims at more acceptance for the accelerated energy turnaround – required after the climate verdict of the Federal Constitutional Court – because positive economic-social effects for coal regions are possible, probably even a higher added value than before. After a brief contextualisation of the topic, it is first examined whether and how corresponding areas can be secured (under planning law) for renewable energy plants. From an energy law perspective, it is then analysed how spatial control could be implemented by setting incentives for potential investors. Furthermore, the focus is on the economic participation of the affected regions and their inhabitants, a point that could bring about a further increase in acceptance beyond the promotion of company settlement and job creation. The findings are partly in line with a recent statement by the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU), but go even further, especially with regard to the issue of securing land; in addition, a concrete concept for the utilisation of former opencast mining regions is offered.