Parliament energy committee agrees to contested renewables reform

The federal parliament’s committee for economics and energy has agreed to the reform of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG), including many last-minute changes, according to a press release. The government coalition parties, economy minister Sigmar Gabriel’s Social Democrats and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats, added changes to help citizen projects compete in the new auction system, to boost local use of PV power, as well as combined auctions for PV and onshore wind with an annual volume of 400 megawatts, starting in 2018.
On Friday, both chambers of parliament are to vote on the reform, which is likely to pass in its current amended form due to the large majority of the government coalition.

Read parliament’s report in German here.

Read the article in PV magazine in German here.

For background on the reform, read the new CLEW dossier The reform of the Renewable Energy Act and the factsheet EEG reform 2016 – switching to auctions for renewables.