In the media: Demands to relax climate goals; a milestone for wind power
Rheinische Post
“CDU’s economic council want to lower Merkel’s climate goals”
A group representing business interests within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU demand a lowering of Germany’s climate goals, reports the Rheinische Post. “We failed to lower the CO2 goal to 30 percent by 2020 when we accelerated the nuclear exit,” said Wolfgang Steiger, head of the party’s economic council (CDU Wirtschaftsrat), according to the paper. The economic council, which represents business interests in the party, fear the proposed coal levy will cost thousands of jobs and lead to deindustrialisation. “We have to establish a realistic corridor of 35 to 40 percent,” Steiger urged.
Read the article in German here.
Read a CLEW article on the debate about the coal levy here.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
“Greens support Gabriel’s coal plans”
The Green Party lends support to energy minister Sigmar Gabriel’s proposal for a levy on old coal-fired power plants, reports Süddeutsche Zeitung. Ten green energy and environment ministers from Germany’s 16 regional states wrote a letter to Gabriel calling the instrument an appropriate step in the right direction to achieve climate goals, according to the article. The state ministers promised support for the attainment of CO2 emission goals and the detailed design of the necessary instruments, including the coal levy.
Handelsblatt
“End of dead calm”
Today’s official inauguration of the off-shore windpark Dan Tysk is a milestone for the industry, writes Georg Weishaupt in Handelsblatt. With a capacity of 288 MW, the park is one of the first large wind parks in the North Sea and can power up to 400,000 households over the year. Including other projects due to come online soon, the capacity of German wind parks in the North Sea will triple by the end of the year to around three GW, equivalent to two nuclear power stations, according to the paper. “This means the hitherto difficult business of off-shore wind parks finally gains traction," writes Weishaupt. The investors are Swedish utility Vattenfall and Munich's local utility, while industrial giant Siemens supplied the generators. Michael Hannibal, head of Siemens’ offshore business, told the newspaper the company aimed at reducing the cost of off-shore electricity to around 10 cents per KWh by 2020 from today’s price of 15 to 16 cents.
Read the article in German here.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Bosch bets on e-cars
German car parts supplier Bosch invests heavily into e-mobility and driverless cars, reports Süddeutsche Zeitung. “We don’t want to wait for the future, we want to build it,” said company head Volkmar Denner according to the newspaper. He said he believed in ten years’ time 14 percent of all new cars world-wide will have an electric engine. “It is our goal to halve battery costs by 2020.” Bosch spends five billion euros per year on research and development. The company increased sales more than seven percent to 49 billion euros last year, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Find the article in German here.
Federal government
Merkel to meet European utility CEOs
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host a meeting with 11 CEOs from European utilities on Monday to discuss “central questions of national and European energy and climate policy”, according to the federal government. The first meeting of this kind of the so-called “Magritte group” took place in February 2014. Energy minister Sigmar Gabriel will also attend the event, which the government described as an exchange of ideas where no important decisions are to be made. The press will not be admitted to the event.
