The turnaround in Germany´s energy policy has started. Step by step all nuclear power stations in Germany will be shut down by the end of 2022. Already the seven oldest nuclear plants – plus Krümmel – are no longer connected to the grid.
 
In order to manage without nuclear energy, we must switch to renewable energy sources. We need a secure, sustainable and affordable supply of energy which in the long term does not rely on nuclear power. For this reason, on May 24, 2011, the Bavarian State Government passed into law Bavaria´s future-oriented energy concept, "Energie innovativ", which sets out comprehensively and specifically how this energy turnaround will be achieved. We want to expand production of energy from renewable sources much more rapidly, and, in the next ten years, double the proportion it accounts for in electricit y consumption, to 50 percent.
 
Now and in the future, the aim of Bavaria´s energy policy is to place the energy supply on a safe, cost-effective and climate-friendly basis. Bavaria´s position as a business location and high-tech region is closely connected with affordable energy prices. The energy turnaround offers tremendous opportunities for our economy and our industry. Innovative energy technology has great economic potential. As a technology of the future, renewable energy will drive innovation and it will be the jobs engine in this century.
 
Bavaria is to be the region with the greatest energy efficiency and the highest proportion of renewable energy in the production of power for electricity as well as for heating. And for this – as already mentioned – it is essential to significantly accelerate further expansion in the area of renewable energy. At the same time advances need to be made and implemented in energy-storage technology. It is also important to fully exploit energy-efficiency and energy-savings potential. We are committed to achieving our ambitious climate goals: By 2020 carbon emissions are to be reduced to less than 6 tonnes per person per year, and by 2030 to less than 5 tonnes.
 
Biomass accounts for around 70 percent of all renewable energy sources. This makes it currently the most important source of renewable energy in Bavaria. By 2021 we want biomass to cover nine percent of overall energy consumption in Bavaria, and almost 10 percent of electricity consumption.
 
In southern Bavaria, we have the opportunity to exploit geothermal heat as a local source of energy, in the form of the geothermal reservoirs in the Malm carbonate platform. So far the geothermal, hydrothermal potential opened up in Bavaria through deep drilling is approximately 300 MW for use in heating and an additional 25 MW for electricity generation. By 2021 it is hoped that deep geothermal reservoirs will cover around one percent of total energy consumption and around 0.6 percent of electricity consumption in Bavaria. The GeoBioEnergy Conference is playing a valuable part here in education and communication.
 
I am very pleased to take over as patron of this event. I thank the initiators and all those involved for their commitment and wish you an interesting and successful few days at the conference.

Dr. Marcel Huber
Bavarian State Minister of the Environment and Public Health