“Fossil energy surcharge”

The ongoing cost debate over Germany’s transition from fossil to renewable energy sources could give the impression that the “Energiewende means saying farewell to super-cheap energy”, strom-report.de reports. “But that is not the case,” the article says. While Germany’s renewables surcharge transparently fixed the price for green energy expansion at 6.88 cents per kilowatt hour, “old energy sources receive state subsidies, tax allowances and only have to pay for a fraction of the environmental and health costs they cause,” the article says. NGO Green Budget Germany (FÖS) puts these “hidden costs” of fossil fuels for the taxpayer somewhere between 33 billion and 38 billion euros in 2017, while about 25 billion euros went into renewables. If the costs were included in the power price, it would jump from 29 to 39 ct/kWh, making a hypothetical “fossil energy surcharge” almost 50 percent higher than that for renewables, strom-report.de says.

Read the article in German here.

See the CLEW factsheets What German households pay for power and Germany ponders how to finance renewables expansion in the future for additional information.