In a laboratory just outside of the city, the EUREF Campus, a partner of Berlin’s Technical University, electric cars, buses, cargo loaders, scooters and pedelecs are networked through a high-tech micro smart grid. The EUREF Campus, which the UN recognised for “Best Practice of Global Urban Renewal” in 2013 , has innovations of interest to Germany’s bigger cities. The campus itself, using a CO₂-neutral energy supply, has already hit Germany’s 2050 targets (as specified in the 2010 Energy Concept) with projects that range from smart metering to a testing platform for e-mobility, with the largest recharging station in Germany. Its e-scooter sharing programme, with 150 scooters, is also considered a trailblazer.

• Further reading: CLEW dossier Towns and cities central to heating and transport transition, CLEW factsheet Technologies of Energiewende,
• CLEW research tour: Is Germany the laboratory for the energy transformation of the 21st century?
• Date of publication: March 2016