Germany Starts Taxing Renewables

Germany is set to become the first nation in Europe to charge owners of renewable energy plants for their own use of electricity, part of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s effort to contain rising power bills. The solar industry says such a payment would curb investments in the technology in the nation that has the most installations of photovoltaics in the world. --Stefan Nicola and Marc Roca, Bloomberg, 24 January 2014

---

Germany risks undermining its industrial base if it fails to undertake radical reform of incentives for the country's renewable energy sector, its new economy minister said in a clear signal of his support for industry. Export-oriented German companies have warned that a surge in power costs, caused largely by the green power incentives, will make them internationally uncompetitive and some have even threatened to move out. "We have reached the limit of what we can ask of our economy," Gabriel said. --Madeline Chambers and Vera Eckert, Reuters, 21 January 2014 Chancellor Angela Merkel's "Energiewende" policy aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent between 1990 and 2020, mostly by closing coal-fired power plants and boosting renewable energy. Yet in 2013, coal burning soared to its highest level for more than 20 years. "It seems highly unlikely that Germany can hit the CO2 reduction target by 2030, much less 2020," says Roger Pielke Jr of the University of Colorado in Boulder. --Fred Pearce, New Scientist, 22 January 2014

---

---

German wind energy giant Prokon filed for insolvency on Wednesday, leaving tens of thousands of investors worried about their money. Prokon, which builds and manages wind parks, has been a leading player in Germany’s ambitious plan to switch to renewable energy. It managed to attract 75,000 investors through a successful advertising campaign. But after months of speculation that the company was close to ruin, Prokon filed for insolvency. --The Local, 23 January 2014 “The EU Commission proposals on energy and climate up to 2030 will do nothing to promote an industrial renaissance, rather they will accelerate the de-industrialisation which is already underway,” says Gordon Moffat, director-general of EUROFER. EUROFER believes that there are no technologies which can be economically applied and that post 2020 targets are ‘simply impossible’ for the steel industry to achieve. --Steel Times International, 22 January 2014

---