“Record support for green power”

German green power support costs exceeded 25 billion euros in 2016 for the first time, writes Andreas Mihm in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, citing figures released by the four German transmission grid operators (TSO). With 22.8 billion euros, electricity consumers paid the largest part with the EEG surcharge, the mechanism that finances the feed-in tariffs. The surplus in Germany’s green energy account of 2.9 billion euros at the end of last year was about 450 million euros below the level at the end of 2015. “The surplus would have likely been used much more, if the past year had not been a comparatively bad year for wind energy,” writes Mihm.

Find the 2016 figures by the TSOs in German here.

For background read the CLEW factsheet Balancing the books: Germany's "green energy account" and the CLEW dossier The reform of the Renewable Energy Act.