“Energiewende threatened by big dent by 2021”

The use of coal-fired power production and other fossil energy sources has to be quickly reduced in Germany in order to keep aging wind turbines cost-efficient, environmental organisation Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), green energy provider Naturstrom AG and consultancy Deutsche WindGuard said in a joint press release. Thousands of wind turbines will lose eligibility for guaranteed feed-in tariffs in one swoop by 2021 due to their age, threatening to “set back the Energiewende by years” if taken off the grid due to their decreased profitability, according to Oliver Hummel of Naturstrom AG. Reducing “fossil overcapacities” would at once lower CO₂-emissions and help revalue power prices, which currently “are insufficient for any power plant – regardless of its technology,” Hummel said. Since replacing decommissioned old wind turbines could take years, the DUH says Germany’s next government will have to speed up the country’s coal exit.

Read the press release in German here.

For background, see the CLEW dossier The Reform of the Renewable Energy Act.