RAINER HINRICHS-RAHLWES

Vice-President: European Renewable Energies Federation (EREF); Board Member: German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE)

Rainer Hinrichs-Rahlwes is an experienced renewable energy expert. In May 2014, he was elected Vice-President of EREF (European Renewable Energies Federation), the voice of independent producers of energy from renewable sources, after serving as EREF’s President for four years (2010 – 2014) and as a Vice-President (2008 – 2010) and a Board Member (2006 – 2008). He also was the President of the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) from June 2012 until EREC’s dissolution in March 2014. He has been a Board Member and the spokesperson for European and International Affairs for BEE (the German Renewable Energy Federation) since 2006. Rainer has been actively involved in shaped the EU’s Renewable Energies Directive and 2020 Climate and Energy Framework and he is now focussing on advocating for stable and reliable framework for 2030.

Mr. Hinrichs-Rahlwes is representing EREF in the Steering Committee of REN21 – the global policy network for the 21^st century, and he is a Member of the Council of the World Renewable Energy Network (WREN) and presently serving as WREN’s head of policy committee. He has been in close contact with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) for nearly a decade. On behalf of EREF and as a member of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES), Rainer has been closely cooperating with the Global 100% Renewables campaign.

Before engaging with the renewable energy sector, Rainer Hinrichs-Rahlwes served as a Director General and Deputy State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety from 1999 to 2005 he was a. In the ministry he was in charge of – among other things – financing mechanisms, renewable energies and the national climate protection programme. He was one of the two chairmen of the International Steering Committee preparing the Bonn renewables2004 conference. After the conference, he engaged in the follow-up process as member of the Steering Committee and the Bureau of REN21 (the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21^st Century), which was founded as one of the outcomes of renewables2004.

Before being appointed Director General in the Federal Ministry of Environment, he held several post in the government administration and as parliamentary advisor and assistant in of the German Federal State of Lower Saxony.

Rainer Hinrichs-Rahlwes graduated from the University of Göttingen with a degree in French Language and in Political Science in 1979.