Germany's energy transition in the media 29 Oct 2014

Spiegel Online

“Germany starts complete remodelling of power market”

The German government sees at least 100 gigawatts of overcapacity in the European power market, which it aims to reduce in coming years together with its European neighbours, Stefan Schultz reports on news website Spiegel Online on Wednesday, citing a draft of the government’s greenbook with proposals for a future design of the power market.

The green paper also looks into the question of whether Germany needs to create a capacity market, paying some conventional power plants to secure supply at times when renewable energy sources don’t produce enough electricity, the website says. While the greenbook doesn’t indicate a decision, it lists a number of studies that question the need for such a capacity market, the website says.

The government aims to publish the green paper in November.

See the article in German here.

ABC News Australia

“Germany's renewable energy incentives and regulations attracting Australian companies”

ABC reports on an Australian company that developed a renewable electricity generator it says could cut household and small businesses’ electricity bills in half, has moved operations to Germany to take advantage of subsidies. "We need to commercialise the product and the incentives in Europe are much better for that,” Ceramic Fuel Cells’ managing director in Germany Frank Obertnitz told ABC. The report also quotes Ecologic Institute director Andreas Kraemer saying that the German programme to support the expansion of renewables has created new businesses worth 40 billion euros per year and employment for up to 400,000 people.

See the article here.