In the new interview format of the TR podcast, I want to use a personal conversation to try to understand what makes people tick who are particularly important in such challenging times as these. I am interested in the people who research our world and our crises and who fight for an alternative to the here and now that is more sustainable, fairer and worth living for everyone.
Who are these people? What are they working on? Why is that important? What motivates you? How do they tick? What makes you doubt? Hope what? What are you afraid of? And why are they doing what they are doing? By the way: Our specialist podcast, in which colleagues from the editorial team deepen topics from the magazine, will be continued – so you will now be able to hear a podcast from us twice a month in our podcast stream.
Editors of the innovation magazine Technology Review discuss important facts and significant absurdities, small anecdotes and big connections.
Guest who “burns” for renewable energies
The first guest is Volker Quaschning, one of the most distinguished experts on renewable energies in Germany. Quaschning is a professor for regenerative energy systems at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. From 1993 to 1996 he did his doctorate at the Technical University of Berlin on shading from photovoltaic systems. This was followed by his habilitation from 1996 to 2000, also at the TU Berlin. The topic: Structures of a climate-friendly energy supply. Since 2004 he has been a professor for the field of regenerative energy systems at the University of Applied Sciences HTW Berlin.
Volker Quaschning
During the conversation, you quickly realize how much Quaschning “burns” for his topic. But his extensive activities in the social media also show how important he is to the climate-neutral energy supply and how much he tries to prepare the background and connections for a broader audience. On Twitter with over 50,000 followers he is always good for a controversy. Also on Mastodon he is of course represented. He also makes a podcast with his wife Cornelia Quaschning, is an author, is on the go on YouTube and even explains the connections of the energy transition very clearly on YouTube Shorts.
In the podcast we talk about the climate protection policy in Germany, which he believes to be unconstitutional, about his vegan lifestyle and how his daughter got him started with it. Quaschning explains why he drives an electric car and not a cargo bike and how he finds the actions of the last generation. And he explains why, as a scientist, he keeps looking for publicity.
More on that in the whole episode – as an audio stream (RSS feed):
(jle)
