Körber Foundation Study Award for Silvia Weko

Huge amounts of data are needed to operate sustainable energy systems and develop innovations for the energy transition. In her work, Silvia Weko argues that actors who receive and control this data benefit from the economic advantages of the energy transition and that technology conglomerates ("BigTech") in particular have an advantage. Using the example of Amazon, she shows how BigTech can rapidly expand its position of power in energy systems with the help of extensive data and artificial intelligence. "For society, the entry of BigTech into the energy transition is a double-edged sword," says Silvia Weko. "On the one hand, these companies can use their resources to develop technologies that accelerate the energy transition. On the other hand, the increasing power of BigTech can mean that they deprive other players of value, position and innovation opportunities. And this would have negative consequences for a fair organisation of the energy transition."

Silvia Weko received her doctorate from the Brandt School in 2024. She is a member of the graduate centre "Effective and Innovative Policymaking in Contested Contexts" (EIPCC) at the University of Erfurt and a research associate in the project "Investigating the Systemic Impacts of the Global Energy Transition" (ISIGET) at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS/RIFS). Her research focusses on value chains for clean energy and how the energy transition can be achieved. She holds a Bachelor's degree in International Studies and a Master's degree in Sociology. During her studies, she worked for the Heinrich Böll Foundation on their global energy transition project and communicated the benefits of clean energy to an international audience.