Vast majority of Germans say Energiewende is important / Carmakers' 'CO2 scam'
“Energiewende continues to be major topic for population”
93 percent of Germans believe the Energiewende is important or very important, according to a survey by Germany’s largest energy industry association BDEW – a rise of 3 percentage points from 2015. 67 percent said the energy transition was advantageous to Germany as a business location. 14 percent said the Energiewende brings them personal disadvantages. More than two thirds expect electricity prices to rise if power comes from renewables. But a majority (55 percent) believe the transition to renewables is advancing too slowly, blaming politics, high costs and a blockade by the utilities for the delay. Only 8 percent said renewable development was too fast.
Find a press release and an extract of the study in German here.
Read a CLEW factsheet on public support for the Energiewende here.
Der Tagesspiegel
“Transport ministry analyses CO2-emissions as well”
The transport ministry’s (BMVI) fact-finding commission on the VW NOx-emissions scandal, will now assess measured CO2-emissions as well, writes Der Tagesspiegel. The results will be published in a separate report. The environmental association Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) had accused transport minister Alexander Dobrindt of holding back the data on carbon dioxide.
Read the article in German here.
Read the CLEW dossier 'The energy transition and Germany’s transport sector' here.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
“The CO2-swindle”
German carmakers have successfully lobbied the German federal government for the continuation of lax CO2-emission tests, reports Klaus Ott in Süddeutsche Zeitung. Current methods allow for circumstances that are “not close to reality”, the transport ministry has admitted. Yet the German government – under pressure from the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) – resists a new international test. “While the government in Berlin and the EU want to finally bring to an end the scam of false, airbrushed results following the VW diesel car scandal, this is not in sight for CO2. Cheating continues for the companies' benefit,” writes Ott.
Read the article in German here.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
“Stuttgart’s science of colours”
Following elections in March, the Green Party has formed a new coalition government in Baden-Württemberg with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) as junior partner. The coalition partners have agreed to make Baden-Württemberg a “pioneer of resource efficiency” and aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020. At the same time, the CDU managed to include in the agreement a new (extended) minimum distance from houses for wind turbines, according to the newspaper.
Find a CLEW factsheet on federalism and the Energiewende here.
Read a CLEW article on the role of energy policy in the regional elections here.
Klimaretter.info
“Green-black: No coal exit before 2050”
The "green-black" coalition agreement in Baden-Württemberg reads as a tough compromise, write Benjamin von Brackel and Oliver Grob on klimaretter.info. It includes targets of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 and 90 percent by 2050, but also the goal to quit coal by the middle of the century. Experts have said that to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees as set out in the Paris Agreement, Germany would have to phase-out coal by 2025, the authors say.
Read the article in German here.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“This is what nuclear waste will cost the tax payer”
Decommissioning nuclear plants and storing nuclear waste will cost a total of 170 billion euros, writes Ralph Bollmann in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Recent proposals by the government commission on financing the nuclear exit would see the utilities pay only a fraction of that sum, implying a risk of taxpayers being left with the lion’s share of the bill, Bollmann says.
Find the article in German here.
Read a CLEW article on the commissions’ proposals here.
Find the CLEW factsheet on nuclear clean-up costs here.
pv magazine
“Almost 78 megawatts of PV capacity added in March”
New installations of photovoltaic (PV) arrays remain on a very low level, writes Sandra Enkhardt in pv magazine. According to figures from the Grid Agency, only about 78 megawatts were added in March. But a detailed look at the figures shows that very few of the arrays won at last year’s pilot auctions have been realised, according to Enkhardt.
Read the article in German here.
Read a CLEW article on solar auctions here.
Federal Grid Agency
Grid agency announces reserve capacity required to secure power grid
In the coming winter, the German power grid will require reserve generating capacity of 5.4 gigawatts (GW) to secure supply, according to the Federal Grid Agency. In the year 2018/2019, the reserve will fall to 1.9 GW, because a new system to deal with bottlenecks between Germany and Austria will be in place, reducing grid overload.
The reserve capacity comes into play when traded power exceeds grid capacity and market-based stations can’t make up for the shortfall with so-called redispatch-measures. Transmission grid operators conduct an annual system analysis to work out how much generating capacity will be required for redispatch-measures to stabilise the grid. The Federal Grid Agency reviews this analysis before it is published.
Read the press release in German here.
Find a CLEW factsheet on the reliability of Germany’s power supply here.
Read a CLEW factsheet on re-dispatch costs to the German power grid here.
Read a CLEW dossier on Germany’s power grid and the Energiewende here.
