Scholz confident about 80% renewables share in 2030, energy industry calls for investment fund

Germany will achieve its target of achieving a share of 80 percent renewable energy in its electricity use by 2030, according to chancellor Olaf Scholz. Speaking at a convention of Germany’s Catholic Church on Friday, Scholz said that “contrary to two years ago, I can now say: we will achieve our 2030 target of 80 percent electricity from renewable sources,” reported news station n-tv. The country had long passed the point where it merely debates how to source its energy in the future. “We now have to do it,” the chancellor said. Moreover, Germany will continue to be a major producer of steel and chemicals with an energy system that has largely given up the use coal, oil, and gas. This would be achieved through a combination of technological prowess by its companies and billions in subsidies by the government for mastering an industrial transformation towards climate neutrality. Scholz’s appearance at the convention was interrupted by climate activists who said he would not live up to his self-styled image of being a ‘climate chancellor’ for the country. Amid a period of increasing political radicalization and repeated acts of violence against lawmakers in Germany, Scholz criticised the Last Generation (Letzte Generation) activists for their disruptive form of protest.

Meanwhile, Germany’s energy industry expects the costs for making the country’s energy system climate neutral to amount to more than 720 billion euros by 2030 - and up to 1.2 trillion euros by 2035. Most of the money will be needed for building more renewable power sources, expanding and modernizing the grids for electricity, heating, and gas, and for scaling up a national hydrogen infrastructure. This sum could only be raised “if energy companies, the finance industry and the state pull together” and tap into all possible sources of funding, energy industry lobby group BDEW and local utility association VKU said. Raising funds from the private sector would be of paramount importance, the groups said. It proposed the creation of an “Energy Transition Fund” with an initial endowment of up to 50 billion euros that could supply companies with capital for making the necessary investment.