Less support for Energiewende - media / Industry wants coal dialogue
Die Welt
Despite the picture portrayed by high approval ratings in surveys, public acceptance of the German Energiewende has fallen due to electricity costs, writes Daniel Wetzel in Die Welt. Germans have declared their support for the switch to renewables, but are less and less willing to pay for the complex transition. They have also opposed certain aspects, like wind turbines close to their homes, Wetzel says. Since the nuclear phase-out is a done deal the struggling big utilities can no longer be cast in the role of bogeymen, “the Energiewende has suddenly become complicated, confusing, contradictory and is lost in details of regulation,” Wetzel writes. This will make it more complicated for the German government “to create an emotional entourage and acceptance from the paying consumer”.
Read the article in German here.
Find the results of past and current surveys in the CLEW factsheet Polls reveal citizens' support for Energiewende.
Handelsblatt
An association of large companies including Deutsche Bahn, Telekom and Aida Cruises is calling for a timely start to the “dialogue about a coal consensus”, writes Silke Kersting in Handelsblatt. In a declaration by the Foundation 2° – seen by Handelsblatt – the companies say that in the medium to long term, ambitious climate protection is only possible without power generation from coal. A coal dialogue would provide the planning security needed for the energy industry and the basis for investment and innovation capacities, boosting the competitiveness of the economy as a whole, according to the declaration.
Read the article (behind paywall) in German here.
For background read the CLEW factsheet Coal in Germany.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
A motion by the Green Party’s executive for the November party conference demands that from 2030, no newly registered cars should be diesel or petrol-fuelled, Andreas Mihm reports in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Such a transport transition would also be in the interest of German car manufacturers, who lag behind foreign competitors because they have been too slow to move on from the combustion engine, the text of the motion says.
Also read the CLEW article VW, Daimler take key step for e-mobility at Paris Car Show. For background, read the CLEW factsheets Dieselgate forces VW to embrace green mobility and Reluctant Daimler plans “radical” push into new mobility world.
Handelsblatt
The Green Party seems to have “learned nothing new” and is living up to its image of “the prohibition party”, writes Silke Kersting in an opinion piece in Handelsblatt about the party’s proposal to ban diesel and petrol engines for newly-registered cars from 2030. The Greens should learn from the past, Kersting writes. “Prohibitions are very little help. They simply provoke resistance.”
Huffington Post Germany
Germany’s energy transition is leading to an increased number of houses being renovated and insulated, which can inflate rents, Tobias Lill says in an opinion piece in the Huffington Post. The growth of renewables has also led to higher power prices that put the greatest pressure on low and middle income households, the author says, calling on Chancellor Merkel to resolve these issues.
Read the article in German here.
For background see CLEW factsheets on consumer power prices and industry power prices in Germany and an article on “energy poverty”.
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
The governments of Germany and India aim to strengthen their energy partnership, particularly in the field of renewables. “The Indian expansion target is an additional power generation capacity of 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar PV, 60 GW of wind and 15 GW of biomass by 2022. That is why Germany and India aim to root their cooperation more in renewables development and grid stability,” the economy ministry says in a press release.
Find the press release in German here.
Wind energy fed from offshore North Sea facilities to the mainland by German grid operator TenneT more than doubled to 5.18 terawatt hours (TWh) in the first half of 2016 – compared to 2.26 TWh in the same period last year, TenneT says in a press release. This amounts to 12.6 percent of all German wind power generation, according to Lex Hartmann, member of the board of management at TenneT.
Read the press release in German here.
Federal Network Agency
Feed-in tariffs for new photovoltaic (PV) installations will remain stable for facilities that begin operation between 1 October and 31 December 2016, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) said in a press release. This is the fifth time in a row that these fixed payments will go unchanged, and is because the 1,096 megawatts (MW) of new capacity installed over the last 12 months is far below the target corridor of 2.4 – 2.6 gigawatts (GW) determined by the Renewable Energy Act (EEG), BNetzA said in a press release. Feed-in tariffs for PV were last lowered in June 2015.
Find the press release in German here.
German Aerospace Center
The world’s first four-seat passenger aircraft powered solely by a hydrogen fuel cell system took off on its first official flight from Stuttgart Airport, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) announced in a press release. The HY4 flies without generating any emissions. While large passenger aircrafts will continue to run on conventional fuels for a while, "our goal is to further improve the fuel cell power train and, in the long term, use it on regional aircraft with up to 19 passengers,” said André Thess, Head of the DLR Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics. The HY4 fuel cell aircraft was developed by the DLR together with partners Hydrogenics, Pipistrel, H2FLY, the University of Ulm and Stuttgart Airport.
Read the press release in English here.
dpa / Bild
Experts say the renewables surcharge will likely only rise to slightly below 7 euro cents per kilowatt hour (KWh), says Bild, based on a report by news agency dpa. The surcharge paid by consumers via electricity bills is currently 6.354 cents per kWh. The cost for 2017 will be announced mid October.
Read the article in German here.
Also read the CLEW factsheet about the Defining features of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG).
