Coal exit 'well before' 2050 / Blocked grid annoys Germany's neighbours
Reuters
“Germany to exit coal power 'well before' 2050 - draft document”
Germany’s use of coal-fired power should come to an end “well before” 2050, a draft document from the environment ministry seen by Reuters states. The ministry suggests setting up a committee to give recommendations on how to reconcile a coal exit with the interests of workers in the coal sector, the news agency reports. The draft of the Climate Action Plan 2050 also suggests the government will examine additional levies on fossil energies in transport and heating to stimulate demand for climate-friendly technologies. The plan also says that renewable development will have to be sped up to achieve climate goals, Reuters writes.
The draft document has not been approved by other ministries. By summer, the government wants to decide on the Climate Action Plan 2050 that is envisaged to describe Germany’s decarbonisation pathway till the middle of the century.
Read an article by Reuters in English here.
CLEW factsheet on the Climate Action Plan 2050.
Deutschlandfunk
“The difficult good-bye to coal & Co.”
Germany is a pioneer when it comes to renewables, but its exit from fossil fuels is making little progress, according to a long report by Susanne Grüter for broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. “The main reason is the lack of a coherent political strategy,” according to Grüter. The good-bye to coal is particularly difficult for Germany’s traditional coal mining areas.
Find the report in German here.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Scandinavians annoyed about blocked-up German power grid”
Denmark, Norway and Sweden have complained to the EU Commission about Germany’s insufficient power connections, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. They are not the only ones, with Poland and Czech Republic installing devices at their borders to prevent unwanted power flows into their countries. Meanwhile the Federal Network Agency has confirmed its demand to split the German-Austrian power trading zone. If Germany’s lack of grid expansion becomes a long-term problem, the EU Commission could order the country to split its own power market in two – with different price zones for northern and southern Germany, the article says.
CLEW factsheet on re-dispatch costs.
CLEW factsheet on loop-flows.
FIZ Karlsruhe
“Successfully implementing plus energy on housing estates”
Residents of energy-plus houses (home that are designed to produce more energy than they use) regard saving electricity as more important than saving heat, a study of an energy-plus housing estate in Landshut, Bavaria has shown. Researchers from FIZ Karlsruhe monitored residents of the newly designed houses and also found that new energy-efficient systems do not fully exploit potential savings because residents use them more frequently and for longer.
Read the press release in English here.
