“Overdue but complicated”

The tenant electricity draft law by the German economy ministry (BMWi) is “an overdue step towards more equality” among the country’s power consumers, Bernward Janzing writes in a commentary for taz. It allowed tenants not to pay the entire renewable energy surcharge if they buy electricity directly from solar panels their landlords have installed on the building’s roof – much in the same way as house owners with pv installations already do, Janzing says. But it does not make sense to only allow tenants to purchase power that comes from their own roof – “it would make more sense to expand the concept to entire districts”, Janzing argues. This would make new solar projects more profitable and motivate apartment building owners to invest in the expansion of solar power, he writes.

Read the commentary in German here.