Local utilities call for expansion of district heating, grid fee reform for energy transition “restart”
Clean Energy Wire
Germany should restart its transition away from fossil fuel-based energy with a larger focus on cost-efficiency, said local utility association VKU. Among the proposals for the country’s next government are a reform of electricity grid fees, using CO2 price revenues to lower distribution grid fees, and decrease the electricity tax to the EU minimum. District heating should be expanded, for which existing regulations needed to be updated.
VKU also called for lowering the offshore wind power expansion target (70 gigawatt (GW) by 2045) to 45-50 GW, because a high concentration of wind parks in the North Sea would mean that the turbines rob each other of wind yield. It also said that carbon capture and storage (CCS) should be allowed for gas power plants – even if this was not going to make economic sense for all units across Germany.
Germany’s next government will have to tackle many climate and energy challenges – some of them it will inherit from the outgoing government, while others become more urgent as the country's 2030 targets come into sight. These include providing adequate back-up capacity for the growing share of renewable power, and providing industry with more clarity on CCS, while keeping especially energy-intensive industry competitive.
