About the Energy Partnership

To further strengthen the bilateral cooperation for a successful energy transition in both countries, Andreas Feicht, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) responsible for energy policy, and Taizo Takahashi, Commissioner of the Japanese Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), signed a “Declaration of Cooperation” in June 2019 on the margins of the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and Global Environment for Sustainable Growth. The thereby established Japanese-German Energy Partnership aims at supporting a fruitful and mutually beneficial exchange on innovation, digitisation and flexibility in the field of renewable energies, grid modernisation, energy efficiency and the use of hydrogen. While Germany has extensive experience with the expansion and system integration of renewables, Japan is more experienced in the use of hydrogen, and the development of energy storage systems and smart grids.

In February 2020, METI and BMWi adopted the Roadmap for their cooperation within the Japanese-German Energy Partnership. The partners agreed to establish the high-level “Japanese-German Energy Transition Cooperation Committee” that heads the Energy Partnership’s institutional structure. It will come together at least once a year to discuss energy related issues, consult on the means of cooperation, evaluate and improve the results of cooperation and determine the respective priorities for the next year.

The Roadmap further decided the establishment of two Working Groups that will carry out the substantive work. The Working Group “Energy Transition” comprises the two pillars renewable energy and energy efficiency. The second Working Group is dedicated to hydrogen and covers all aspects of the production, distribution and use of this technology.

The Working Groups strive to enable a dialogue, sharing best practices and identifying concrete proposals for cooperation such as joint studies, study and/or field trips or even the initiation of joint demonstration projects.