Activists
from Energietisch, the organization leading the push to get Berlin to
bid for the city's grid, protest in front of Berlin's famous Brandenburg
Gate. The large yellow sign reads, "Referendum. New Energy for Berlin.
Democratic, Ecological, Social." The small black sign reads, "Pull the
Plug on Vatenfall." Credit: UweHiksch, flickrBERLIN, Germany—A decision 90 years ago by the people of Sacramento, Calif. to oust a private electric company and start a government-owned utility has been the unlikely inspiration for Berliners trying to wrest control of Germany's largest grid from a coal-fired utility.
While little known in America, the creation of Sacramento's Municipal Utility District was the model for a November referendum to give Berlin a municipal utility that would pump more clean energy into the grid. The 1923 vote in Sacramento helped the California city build a rare, green record—constructing the nation's first big solar plant, voting to shut down a nuclear reactor and approving a goal of slashing climate-changing emissions by 90 percent by 2050.
"Sacramento stopped nuclear with direct elections," said Stefan Taschner, spokesperson for Energietisch, the group behind the push to take over Berlin's grid. It provides the "best example of democratic control."
Berlin's referendum failed by a tiny margin—but it's not the end of the story. The contract to operate the grid expires at the end of next year, and the near-approval sent a strong message to the mayor and other officials that the city should buy the contract. The referendum needed 25 percent of Berlin's 2.5 million registered voters to pass; it missed that mark by less than 1 percent.
It seems unlikely that Berliners would look to Sacramento, or anywhere but their own country, for a model on how to build a greener grid—given that Germany is driving the world's most aggressive clean energy transformation. But Berlin has been largely left out of the shift, and activists here have been scrambling for tactics to limit influence of corporate fossil fuel interests. Less than 2 percent of the electricity produced in Berlin comes from renewables, compared to 25 percent in Germany overall.
The vast majority of Berlin's electricity is coal-fired and generated by energy giant Vattenfall, whose parent company won a contract in 1994 to operate the grid for 20 years.
Ending the privatization of energy is a major part of the Energiewende, Germany's plan to transition to renewables from fossil fuels and nuclear. A 2000 law gave citizens incentives to produce their own clean power and compete with utilities. As a result, 51 percent of the country's renewable power capacity is now owned by individuals who have built solar on rooftops and wind turbines on farms. That has left Germany's "Big Four" utilities, including Vattenfall, with just a sliver—6.5 percent—of this burgeoning sector.
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