New renewables law threatens wind power – Green Party

Berliner Zeitung

“The federal government is shifting into reverse gear concerning Energiewende”

The federal government’s plans to reform the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) will lead to the “collapse” of the expansion of wind power in Germany, writes Frank-Thomas Wenzel in Berliner Zeitung. This is the conclusion of a study commissioned by the Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag, seen by Clean Energy Wire. The reform plans by economy minister Sigmar Gabriel include the introduction of a growth target to a 40-45 percent share of renewables in German power consumption in 2025. Julia Verlinden, spokesperson for energy policy of the Greens in the Bundestag, criticises the plans will thereby introduce an upper limit to renewables in general and, specifically, wind power. “With its plans, the federal government whacks at the support pillar of wind companies.” Gabriel wants to “continue to protect the old fossil power plants from sustainable competition”, said Verlinden.

Read the article in German here.

Find a CLEW factsheet on the EEG reform plans here.

WirtschaftWoche

“Energy companies threaten government with pay-stop for nuclear storage”

The quarrel between utilities and the government about financing the storage of radioactive waste is escalating, writes Angela Hennersdorf in the WirtschaftsWoche. E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall were threatening to stop paying the annual bill for finding a nuclear repository, the article says. The utilities are concerned that the costs for the search are artificially high and want to put pressure on the government, which is currently debating how much money nuclear power station operators will have to pay for the clean-up as a whole.

Read the article in German here.

Read a CLEW factsheet about financing the nuclear clean-up here.

Süddeutsche Zeitung

“’That’s scaremongering’”

The conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) is against a premature shutdown of nuclear reactors in Gundremmingen, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung. CSU politicians reacted to corresponding demands by the Green party in the Bavarian state parliament. Green parliamentary group chairman Ludwig Hartmann called the reactors the “biggest nuclear risk in Germany” because they are the country’s last boiling water reactors. He added that the facility will cease to be necessary for security of supply in Bavaria when the new high-voltage line "Thüringer Strombrücke" becomes operational in summer. State economy minister Ilse Aigner, of the CSU, rejected the demands and said that one could not just move away from the agreed timetable for the nuclear phase-out.

Read the article in German here.

Read a CLEW dossier about the nuclear phase-out here.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung / Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Airbus and Siemens want to develop e-plane”

Airbus and Siemens are confident of introducing a hybrid passenger aircraft into the market by 2030, writes Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. As a first step, the executives of both companies signed an agreement investing an “amount in the substantial three-digit million range” into a research cooperation over the coming five years, with a staff of 200 scientists and engineers working in a joint facility near Munich. “Subsequently, we can imagine a joint venture,” said Airbus chief executive Tom Enders. The envisioned aircraft would use electricity for the strong propulsion thrusts during take-off and a regular kerosene motor for the flight at cruising altitude. A self-sufficient plane that only runs on electricity was not conceivable within the first development phase, writes Marie Ludwig in Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Read the article by Süddeutsche Zeitung in German here.

Handelsblatt

“Small motors in big demand”

Companies which produce small gas-fired power stations like GE Jenbacher, Wärtsilä, and MAN, could become profiteers of the Energiewende just like wind turbine and power grid manufactures, write Axel Höpner and Klaus Stratmann in the Handelsblatt. While the classic large and inflexible power plant can hardly be combined with fluctuating renewable power, small power stations can. The new German power market law is designed to make investing in them profitable again, the authors say. By allowing for price peaks at times of low supply from renewables, flexible power stations could earn their money in these hours – a market design that companies could base their strategies on, Wärtsilä board member Kari Hietanen told the paper.

Read a CLEW factsheet about Germany's new power market design here.

dpa

“Diesel remains cheaper than petrol”

Germany’s state environment ministers and the Federal Ministry for the Environment could not agree on increasing the tax for diesel in Germany, dpa reports. While five states had suggested making diesel more expensive, Bavaria and Lower Saxony - home to car manufacturers BMW, Audi and VW – did not support the notion. “We need diesel for climate protection,” said Bavaria’s environment minister Ulrike Scharf.

Read the article in German here.

WirtschaftsWoche

“Audi: More than Tesla in one sweep”

German car manufacturer Audi will produce a purely electric car and wants to overtake rival Tesla, the WirtschaftsWoche reports, referring to sources from the car industry. Audi plans to to build 60,000 cars of its electric model Q6 e-tron annually as of 2018 - 10,000 more than Tesla has sold of its E-limousine model S in 2015. Audi has not confirmed these numbers, the authors say.

Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Setback out of the air”

The German wind power sector has lost a legal case against the Deutsche Flugsicherung (German flight security) over the ban of wind turbines near radio beacons. The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig decided that flight security has a wide-ranging margin of discretion if it deems that wind turbines are obstructing its beacons, Michael Bauchmüller writes. The wind lobby says that the decision could prevent the construction of 800 wind turbines across Germany and wants to find a political solution together with the flight security and the transport ministry.

Agora Energiewende / Ecofys

“Flexibility + Efficiency = flexible efficiency”

Think-tank Agora Energiewende* suggests that future industrial facilities do not only have to become more efficient but should be geared towards variably timing their power consumption. This would help to lower their energy costs by using overall less energy and by consuming power when it is cheap, a study by consultancy Ecofys, commissioned by Agora Energiewende, finds.

Read the paper in German here.

* Like the Clean Energy Wire, Agora Energiewende is a project funded by Stiftung Mercator and the European Climate Foundation.