Ursula Sladek (born 6 September 1946) owns a small local power company, Schönau Power Supply, located in
Schönau im Schwarzwald
Schönau im Schwarzwald is a town in the Lörrach (district), district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the Black Forest, on the river Wiese (river), Wiese, northeast of Basel, Switzerland, and south of Freiburg.
...
, Germany, that provides electricity from
renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
sources to the German electricity grid.
Her company "gets much of its energy from small local energy producers, including a handful of hydropower operations, solar panels, some wind turbines, and about 20 washing-machine-size co-generation plants in people’s homes that produce both heat for the home and electricity for the grid".
[ Sladek has also been interested in finding ways of rendering nuclear power unnecessary in Germany:][ Sladek won a ]Goldman Environmental Prize
The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. ...
in 2011.
Background
In 1986, she was a homemaker and the mother of five school-age children when some radioactive isotopes blown into the air by the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine landed around her town, Schönau, in the Black Forest
The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...
in western Germany. Her children could not play outdoors for two weeks; 25 years later, that forest’s mushrooms are still considered unsafe.[
]
Trained as a schoolteacher, Sladek began to study the energy industry in Germany to see if there were ways to decrease dependence on nuclear power. Together with her husband, Michael Sladek
Michael Sladek (born 1946 in Murrhardt) is a German doctor and bearer of the Federal Cross of Merit.
Life
He became famous by realising a grid-independent system for producing electricity, by distributed little power plants.
For this he was aw ...
, she formed a group called "Parents for a Nuclear Free Future" to promote energy efficiency in the Black Forest region of Germany, and return control of energy production and distribution to the community. In 1991, when the previous power company's lease to supply power to the Schönau region was up for renewal, Sladek and her partners began a nationwide fundraising effort to enable them to take ownership of the local power grid. They were able to raise 6 million DM (about 3 million Euros) and by 1997 had established the Schönau Power Supply as a community operated energy provider committed to a sustainable energy future. The Schönau Power Supply uses a decentralized approach to power generation, and makes use of renewable energy sources, including solar, hydroelectric, wind power, and biomass. The company is operated as a cooperative; while the cooperative owners receive dividends, the majority of the profits are re-invested in renewable energy sources. Total revenues reached 67 million Euros in 2009.
Awards and recognition
Ursula Sladek has won many awards for her work in the fields of energy conservation and renewable energy production, including the German Federal Cross of Merit
The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...
, the Henry Ford European Conservation Award, the German Founder of the Year Award, the International Nuclear-Free Future Award Since 1998 the Nuclear-Free Future Award (NFFA) is an award given to anti-nuclear activists, organizations and communities. The award is intended to promote opposition to uranium mining, nuclear weapons and nuclear power.
The NFFA is a project of ...
, the German Energy Prize, and the European Solar Prize
{{notability, date=February 2018
The European Solar Prizes are a series of awards which have been given annually since 1994 by the European Association for Renewable Energy (EUROSOLAR) located in Bonn, Germany. The prizes are awarded to individu ...
, and was elected an Ashoka Fellow in 2008. Sladek won a Goldman Environmental Prize
The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. ...
in 2011.
See also
*Eurosolar
Eurosolar - European Association for Renewable Energies (Own spelling: EUROSOLAR) is a German association with headquarters in Bonn. The association has sections in 13 countries (Germany, Bulgaria, Denmark, Georgia, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, ...
*Renewable energy commercialization
Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include b ...
*Michael Sladek
Michael Sladek (born 1946 in Murrhardt) is a German doctor and bearer of the Federal Cross of Merit.
Life
He became famous by realising a grid-independent system for producing electricity, by distributed little power plants.
For this he was aw ...
*World Future Council
The World Future Council (WFC) is a German non-profit foundation with its headquarters in Hamburg. It works to pass on a healthy and sustainable planet with just and peaceful societies to future generations.
FuturePolicy.org
The website f ...
*Hans-Josef Fell
Hans-Josef Fell (born 7 January 1952) was a member of the German Parliamentary Group Alliance 90/ the Greens from 1998 to 2013. He served as spokesman on energy for the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group, a member of the Environmental ...
*Anti-nuclear movement in Germany
The anti-nuclear movement in Germany has a long history dating back to the early 1970s when large demonstrations prevented the construction of a nuclear plant at Wyhl. The Wyhl protests were an example of a local community challenging the nucl ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sladek, Ursula
People associated with solar power
People associated with renewable energy
Living people
German women engineers
Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg
1946 births
German schoolteachers
People from Lörrach (district)
Engineers from Baden-Württemberg
Goldman Environmental Prize awardees
Ashoka Fellows