Towards a European competence region for renewable energy? Findings from the Danish-German border region

In view of the increasing relevance of renewable energy, Danish and German university partners of the European Future Renewable Energy (FURGY) project developed and conducted a qualitative and a quantitative regional foresight (“Delphi”) study which primarily provided the data for this article. Based on the main findings of this regional foresight study and additional data, we present and discuss in this article four different scenarios for the development of the renewable energy sector in the FURGY region until 2030. These scenarios describe four cases: (i) “modest improvement as “most probable future”, (ii) “worst case”, (iii) “predominantly negative case”, and (iv) “best case”. We conclude our article with concrete police recommendations which can help regional, national and European policy makers to initiate a transition process from “modest improvement” to “radical improvement” of the conditions for the renewable energy sector in Europe, its member states and regions.