Germany’s political stalemate at federal level slows down regional energy projects

The problems blocking the formation of a new government in Germany have put the brakes on one of the most ambitious energy transition projects in the country’s north, the news agency dpa reports in an article carried by the Hamburger Abendblatt. The project dubbed NEW 4.0, which is meant to prove that both the city of Hamburg and the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein can cover 100 percent of their energy needs with wind energy and other renewable sources, cannot currently receive any investment in absence of a federal regulatory framework, the article says. “We’ve got no one to contact”, says Jens Kerstan, Hamburg’s senator for the environment. Germany’s federal government provides around 46 million euros for the project, which combines several measures aimed at improving the management of power production and consumption, while another 60 to 80 million euros are contributed by the participating companies, which currently have no legal admission to transfer their money to where it is needed, the article says.

Read the article in German here.

See the CLEW article Government gridlock and the CLEW factsheet The long road to a new government coalition in Germany for background.