Mastering The Energiewende - A Cross-Disciplinary Teaching Approach

Decarbonizing the electricity system has become one of the most important and urgent societal challenges for the coming years. Germany’s so-called Energiewende, the energy transition from fossil to renewable energy sources, is well advanced. However, experience show that there is both an urgent and probable long-lasting need for cooperation between disciplines such as economics, engineering, sociology and computer science to master the Energiewende. While scholars already address a myriad of idiosyncratic technological and economic issues, they still tend to neglect the demand for a skillful workforce that is capable of mastering cross-discipline challenges. The IS discipline has a long tradition in interdisciplinary research and the energy system transition is inseparably linked to a smarter grid. Green IS education can therefore significantly contribute to a global Energiewende by developing teaching concepts in order to provide necessary skills and capabilities for students and young professionals. We address this challenge by presenting a cross-disciplinary teaching innovation based on the German Energiewende.