Hans-Josef Fell is a member of the Green Party in the German Parliament

Bundestag

The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...

. Fell framed the German Renewable Energy legislation, together with Hermann Scheer

Hermann Scheer

Hermann Scheer was a Social Democrat member of the German Bundestag , President of Eurosolar and General Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy...

. He currently serves as spokesman on energy for the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group, a member of the Environmental Protection Committee, substitute member of the Committee on Economics and Technology and substitute member of the Defense Committee.

Personal life

Hans-Josef Fell was born on January 7, 1952 in Hammelburg, Germany. He graduated from Gymnasium Hammelburg in 1971. He studied Physics and Sport Sciences at the University of Würzburg. Between 1977 and 1978 he did his civil service year in Würzburg with special education children. After passing the state teacher's exam in 1980, Fell began teaching physics and physical education at Alexander-von-Humboldt Gymnasium in Schweinfurt. Fell and his wife live in Hammelburg and have three children. The family house is built according to ecological criteria and runs completely on renewable energy. Fell has won awards for his home, including the international "Solar-Oskar", the Energy Globe Award 2000.

Political career

Hans-Josef Fell joined the Green Party in 1992 following years of interest in renewable energy and environmental protection. Fell worked on the city council in his hometown of Hammelburg from 1990 until 1998 and from 1996 until 2003 he worked in the county council in the Bad Kissingen district. He has been a member of the German Parliament since 1998. Hans-Josef Fell supported the shift in military training methods towards conflict deescalation, particularly at the Bundeswehr base in Hammelburg. From 1999 to 2005, as spokesman of the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group on the German Bundestag’s research committee, Hans-Josef Fell helped to ensure an increase in funding for research into photovoltaics, concentrating solar power,geothermal energy, bioenergy, batteries for electric cars, bionics, nanotechnoloy and others. Hans-Josef Fell has initiated many technical assessment reports, which in some cases still offer important foundations for legislative developments today, for example: nanotechnology, geothermal energy, transport systems of the future, various medical issues such as research into the brain, nuclear fusion, and genetic engineering in agriculture and medicine.

Hans-Josef Fell wrote the draft of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), which was adopted in 2000 in the face of strong political opposition. The law, enacted 25 February 2000, guarantees cost-covering feed-in Tariff

Feed-in Tariff

A feed-in tariff is a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies. It achieves this by offering long-term contracts to renewable energy producers, typically based on the cost of generation of each technology...

s for electricity from biomass

Biomass

Biomass, as a renewable energy source, is biological material from living, or recently living organisms. As an energy source, biomass can either be used directly, or converted into other energy products such as biofuel....

, wind power

Wind power

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....

, and solar power

Solar power

Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...

, and aimed to increase the percentage of renewable energy

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...

 used in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 to 12.5% by the year 2010. In 2009, Germany was already generating 16% of its energy from renewable resources. He was also involved in drafting the law amending the EEG in 2004.

Hans-Josef Fell initiated legislation exempting biofuels from tax, and was also actively involved in establishing the legislative framework for renewables at the European level.

Hans-Josef Fell is the founder of the Energy Watch Group, an association of independent researchers and economics experts who are in the process of developing sustainable concepts to secure our global energy supply. Additional key members are Werner Zittel, Jörg Schindler, Managing Director of Ludwig Bölkow Systemtechnik GmbH, Harry Lehmann, an expert from the World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE) and Stefan Peter from the Institute for Sustainable Solutions and Innovations.

He currently serves as spokesman on energy for the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group, a member of the Environmental Protection Committee, substitute member of the Committee on Economics and Technology and substitute member of the Defense Committee.

He is a signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism

Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism

The Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism , which was signed on 3 June 2008, was a declaration signed by prominent European politicians, former political prisoners and historians, including past signatories of Charter 77 such as Václav Havel, which called for condemnation of and...

.

Awards

• 1994: Solar Prize of the European Solar Energy Association EUROSOLAR
• 2000: Energy Globe Award
• 2000: Solar prize of the German section of the International Solar Energy Society (DGS)
• 2001: Nuclear-Free Future Award – foremost prize of the international anti-nuclear movement
• 2002: German Solar Industry Prize
• 2002: First German Geothermal Award (the “Hard Rock Drill”)
• 2003: German Biogas Prize, Dr Heinz Schulz Memorial Medal
• 2006: Bonda Prize of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA)