SPD state premier uses unverifiable amount in Energiewende cost debate – report

The Social Democratic (SPD) state premier of coal-mining state Brandenburg is at the forefront of a “PR-battle” over the energy transition’s costs that usually is dominated by sceptics in the right-wing nationalist AfD party, Jörg Staude writes for website klimaretter.info. In an interview with news agency dpa in early January, Woidke said Germany’s “entire Energiewende needs to be put into question” and said costs from the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) amounted to 800 billion euros “for building wind turbines and solar power plants”. Staude says that “anyone familiar with the topic knows that Woidke came up with a figure that no one has ever seen before”. Even the AfD and the generally energy-transition sceptic Federation of German Industries (BDI) calculate with lower EEG costs. A parliamentary inquiry by the Green Party in Brandenburg about Woidke’s sources “did not deliver any concrete results”, Staude says. Investigations by klimaretter.info on the 800-billion euro figure led to a single online source, the “anti-Energiewende and AfD-affiliated” association Naeb.

Find the article in German here.

See the CLEW news digest item Energiewende costs “unknown” to German government for background.