GHG-neutral transport by 2050 / EU Commission approves e-car subsidy
Federal Environment Agency
“Climate protection contributions of the transport sector by 2050”
Germany's transport sector will need to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by about 98 percent to compensate for inevitable emissions from other sectors, as part of the country's effort to reduce overall emissions by up to 95 percent by 2050, according to a new report by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA). “In essence, the transport sector is required to be effectively GHG-neutral by the year 2050. There is no alternative to virtually GHG-neutral transport,” write the authors. The targets could be achieved by reducing final energy consumption and switching from fossil fuels like petrol and Diesel to electricity from renewable energy.
Read the full report with a summary in English here.
Read the CLEW dossier on the energy transition and Germany’s transport sector.
EU Commission approves e-car subsidy
The European Commission yesterday said that Germany's planned buyer’s premium for new e-cars is in accordance with EU state aid regulations and can be fully implemented, the economy ministry writes in a press release. “Now the funding regulation can be introduced in the budget and economy committee of the Bundestag and then come into force,” said economy minister Gabriel according to the press release. The regulation will be backdated to 18 May.
Find the press release in German here.
Read the CLEW article Federal government decides on 4,000 euro buyer's premium for e-cars.
WirtschaftsWoche
“Government will miss climate targets”
The current government plans to develop renewables in Germany are too slow to reach the country’s target of a renewables share of 55-60 percent by 2035, energy think tank Agora Energiewende’s* Patrick Graichen told WirtschaftsWoche. The volume of additional capacity the government allows per year “is insufficient to replace old facilities and build enough new ones,” said Graichen.
Read the article in German here.
Read the CLEW factsheet EEG reform 2016 – switching to auctions for renewables.
Read the CLEW article Wind development has to wait for grid expansion on current government plans.
*Like the Clean Energy Wire, Agora Energiewende is a project funded by Stiftung Mercator and the European Climate Foundation.
WirtschaftsWoche
“Reform with deficits”
The reform plans for the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) might cause the country to miss its renewables expansion targets, “kill citizen energy” and only modestly reduce the cost of the Energiewende, writes WirtschaftsWoche. The introduction of ‘grid congestion zones’ in northern Germany is “economically questionable,” as wind cannot be produced more cheaply anywhere else in the country, the magazine says.
Spiegel Online
“Schleswig-Holstein fights against phantom electricity”
The environment minister of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany’s northernmost state, has introduced an amendment to the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) reform draft to prevent the waste of excess electricity, according to Spiegel Online. “We must use the renewable power at times of grid bottlenecks, instead of turning off facilities,” said the Green politician Robert Habeck. Habeck underscored demands he made last week, introducing an amendment to the proposed EEG reform draft in Germany's upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat. The amendment recommends supporting the development of technologies and projects for the alternative use of excess power, like storage by way of power-to-gas. Germany should finance research and pilot projects to find an alternative to the current practice of compensating wind and solar producers for "phantom electricity" when their plants are shut down because the network is overburdened, according to Habeck, Spiegel Online says.
Read the article in German here.
Read the CLEW factsheet on Re-dispatch costs in the German power grid.
Handelsblatt Online
A “revolution” for Volkswagen
As the automobile sector faces a fundamental transformation with e-mobility and digitalisation, it is high time for the transition that German carmaker Volkswagen announced with its 2025 strategy yesterday, writes Markus Fasse in an opinion piece in Handelsblatt. “For Volkswagen, the way is especially long, because in Wolfsburg one stubbornly ignored the changes so far. A competitive e-car has not been developed, and nobody has seriously occupied themselves with mobility services,” writes Fasse.
Read the opinion piece (behind a paywall) in German here.
Der Tagesspiegel
“Utilities block compromises in repository search commission”
Representatives of Germany’s large utilities blocked compromises in the most recent meetings with the parliamentary commission responsible for finding a final repository for highly radioactive nuclear waste after nuclear plants are shut down, writes Dagmar Dehmer in Der Tagesspiegel. First, RWE and E.ON blocked the discussion over a specific definition for the kind of final repository needed, and then obstructed the wording used to call for a “re-start” of the search, writes Dehmer. The commission is expected to publish its final report when its mandate ends at the end of the month.
Read the article in German here.
Read a CLEW factsheet on the nuclear storage question in Germany.
Reuters
“Siemens, Gamesa to create world's largest wind farm business”
German company Siemens and Spain’s Gamesa announced plans to merge their wind power businesses, reports Reuters. The joint venture would overtake the Danish Vestas as the world’s biggest builder of wind power plants. An agreement in principle was reached, but details still needed to be approved, writes Reuters.
Read the article in English here.
