Government postpones decision on renewables reform

Germany’s coalition parties, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the Social Democrats (SPD), have not been able to agree on the changes they want to introduce to the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) concerning additional tenders to faster increase the share of renewables in power consumption. The cabinet has postponed today’s decision on the so called 100-day law that was to provide a quick fix of the auction system for wind installations and reform regulations for combined heat-and-power plants (CHP) before the summer break. The energy ministry reached an agreement with EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Tuesday, making sure that the changes to the CHP law would be compliant with the union's competition rules, which both ruling parties deemed a success. But with regard to additional renewables auctions, the two ministries involved - the SPD-led environment ministry and the CDU-led energy ministry - have not been able to find a compromise, sources told the Clean Energy Wire. The SPD’s coordinator for energy policy in the Bundestag, Johann Saathoff, said that energy minister Peter Altmaier had to include the additional auctions which are embedded in the coalition treaty in the EEG reform now. If he did, the reform could happen before the summer break. NGOs and Green Party politicians had lambasted the government for failing to include the extra auctions in the draft, saying that they were already falling behind the coalition treaty and threatened Germany’s emission reduction targets.

Read a CLEW dossier on the Renewable Energy Act here.

Read a CLEW dossier on onshore wind power here.