Last-minute fix to wind tenders/ Predicted job-losses in car industry
Clean Energy Wire
A last-minute fix to the rules for onshore wind tenders is designed to ensure commercial projects posing as citizens’ initiatives don’t dominate the next rounds of auctions. The government fast-tracked the most pressing change to the system, to be passed by parliament on Thursday. The SPD-led environment ministry and CDU-led energy ministry were unable to settle differences over more far-reaching reform, with the SPD insisting any reform of renewables legislation must include the additional auctions promised in the coalition treaty. SPD energy expert Johann Saathoff said this week’s change to the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) sent an “important signal to the wind power sector, giving all stakeholders the security necessary for stable growth.”
Read CLEW dossiers on onshore wind power here and on the EEG here.
Clean Energy Wire
According to a new study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO), electrifying cars will reduce need for workers in the car industry, including external suppliers to car manufacturers. The researchers looked at three different scenarios. In the most conservative one, they assumed a market share of 25 percent for electric vehicles and 15 percent plug-in-hybrid cars by 2030. This implied around 23,000 of roughly 210,000 jobs in drive train technology lost purely due to the technological shift, and a further 53,000 as a result of a general increase in productivity. These figures accounted for the 25,000 jobs created in battery and electric technology, an IAO press release said.
Jörg Hofmann, chairman of workers’ union IG Metall said these findings shouldn’t prompt fearmongering. “Politicians now have to flank the necessary structural change in the automobile industry with target-oriented industrial and job policies,” Hofmann said.
Read the IAO press release in German here. The complete study is due to be published at the end of June.
Read a CLEW dossier on the Energiewende and German car makers here.
RP Online
German buyers can by now choose between 27 purely electric cars, with the government offering a 4,000-euro premium and tax reliefs. Yet most private individuals still don’t opt for e-cars, RP Online reports. Between January and May this year, 1.43 million new petrol and diesel cars were registered in Germany, compared to just 14,583 e-cars. One reason is that despite the premium, e-cars are more expensive to buy than combustion vehicles. A minority of drivers could charge their e-car with power from their own solar PV installation, meaning they can basically fuel the car for free, Reinhard Kolke from drivers’ club ADAC said. For the rest, the cost of charging an e-car is often higher than manufacturers claim.
Read the article in German here.
See a CLEW dossier on Germany’s transport sector in the energy transition here.
Clean Energy Wire
Ahead of the G7 summit in Canada, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated the importance of her government’s commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement, after the US had decided to leave the accord last year. “All the more it’s on us to reach our targets, and one has to be honest and say that Germany still has to do quite a bit to make its European contribution,” said Merkel at government question time in the federal parliament (Bundestag). “Now, it’s about saving the Paris Agreement, because it’s crucial for our planet.” Merkel said it is “desirable” to include climate protection in trade agreements. This, however should not mean that talks about trade relations with the US should be halted. “To connect everything with everything and make any talks about trade impossible is also not in the interest of Germany, I think.”
For background, read the CLEW articles Isolating Trump, 19 G20-members say Paris climate deal "irreversible," and Merkel calls for honouring Paris Agreement as climate action at home falters as well as the factsheet The story of "Climate Chancellor" Angela Merkel.
Verivox
More than 40 percent of German consumers don’t know how many kilowatt-hours of electricity they consumed or how much they paid for it last year, price comparison website Verivox says in a press release. A third of respondents to a Verivox survey had a vague idea, while 25 percent could give precise details.
Find the press release in German here.
For background, read the CLEW factsheet What German households pay for power.
Clean Energy Wire
Spanish-german Wind turbine producer Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy has officially opened a new assembly plant for nacelles, a component for offshore wind turbines, in Cuxhaven, northern Germany. The company says the plant is the country’s “most modern and largest” of its kind. Siemens-Gamesa invested around 200 million euros into the factory, which is to employ 850 people by the end of the year.
Find a press release in English here.
