Refine
Document Type
- Doctoral thesis (2)
Has Fulltext
- yes (2)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (2)
Year of publication
- 2016 (2) (remove)
Language
- English (2)
Keywords
- Deutschland (2)
- Brandenburg (1)
- Cameroon renewable energy potential (1)
- Energiemarkt (1)
- Erneuerbare Energie-Gesetz (1)
- Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (1)
- Kamerun (1)
- Legal (1)
- Legislation (1)
- Nano (1)
Nanotechnologies allow for the production of completely new materials in a wide range of industries and technical fields and are also recognised as one of the most important technological sectors for the future. The growing nanotechnological industry is rapidly generating new forms of materials; however, little is known about the behaviour of these substances, in particular their particle form and their impact on different ecological systems and the life within them. Concerns have been raised about the safety and regulation of nanomaterials, following a number of studies that indicated that some nanomaterials are able to cause adverse effects on living objects. This data, as well as increasing production volumes and commercialisation, the capability of crossing biological barriers and the increased physico-chemical activities of nanoparticles, when compared to their bulk counterparts, have triggered concern (Baró et al., 2001; Kear et al., 2012) about their impacts on health and safety.
In Germany, nanoparticles, nanotechnological products, their production processes and their disposal are generally subject to the prevailing law of the German legal system, especially with respect to the authorization of equipment, permissions regarding chemicals and other product groups, and the protection of employees and the environment. With regard to nanotechnologies, however, the question arises as to whether the present legal regulations are adequate, and/or whether regulative gaps occur because of specific new products, materials or process characteristics. Accordingly, based on the analysis of the relevant state-of-the-art technology and science, and an evaluation of existing, as well as projectable, future national legislation on this matter, this work aims to identify regulative gaps in the relevant standardisation procedures and to point out possible adjustments.
Although nanomaterials are covered by the general scope of many of the existing legislative frameworks, it is often unclear if current regulation is actually applicable for specific questions of nanomaterials and their diverse applications. In particular, there is a lack of sufficient knowledge of the risks, which could lead to imbalanced legal protection against any threats that may arise. However, it is recognised that adjustments are needed, and legal amendments have been repeatedly proposed by expert committees, policymakers, industry members and non-governmental organisations (European Parliament, 2009). Nonetheless, very few revisions have been made to date, so the existing regulations are not considered adequate to deal with all kinds of nanomaterials in both the short and long term. Current legislation needs to be adapted immediately to reflect the challenges posed by current nanomaterials and their applications.
The German government has set ambitious targets for wind energy expansion and has implemented policy schemes aimed at facilitating market deployment of wind-generated electricity. Data on German wind energy market has shown that, wind energy generating capacity is increasing correspondingly towards the targeted values. Germany is the largest wind energy market in the EU (wind energy accounting for about 10% of the total electricity consumption in Germany) with an installed capacity of about 38.2 GW onshore by the close of 2014. The success of these policies has prompted other countries globally to adopt similar support schemes for renewable energies. However, the rapid growth of wind energy generation in Germany equally faces numerous challenges. Some of these problems are inherent to the wind energy technology while others are caused by the very policies instruments used to support wind energy expansion, such as limited availability of designated areas for wind energy development, non-uniform regulations, and rising prices. The objective of this research, therefore, is to assess the impact of the German energy and environmental policies on onshore wind energy development and to explore implementation options of the German model in Cameroon.
This research has examined the German onshore wind energy sector from a policy perspective based on existing literature, semi-structured interviews with major stakeholders, a case study of Brandenburg and a survey, with the aim of investigating the acceptance of wind energy and challenges the developers are facing.
Based on the study results, it can be affirmed that the future growth of the German onshore market will come from flexible government policies, which may offer fewer incentives to investors. Indeed, the cost of electricity from renewable energy technologies in Germany is in some cases already below retail rates. There is the need, therefore, to pursue strategic programmes that enhances market integration of wind energy. Furthermore, the study results equally shows that the German feed-in tariff based support scheme in its current form, cannot be implemented in Cameroon. This is because, the purchasing power of the Cameroonian population and the economic constraints of the government, makes it difficult or even impossible to adopt the current EEG model in Cameroon where often, basic needs are subsidized.