energiewende

Land and subsidy restrictions for PV and wind could see country fall short of 65% renewable target by 2030 despite record generation levels, ZSW and BDEW warn.

India’s energy and mines minister Piyush Goyal has challenged Germany and the city of Munich to a race with the ancient holy city of Varanasi to become the first large city in the world to be 100% powered by clean energy.

New research predicts the energy storage market in Germany will increase 11-fold in the next five years, with the residential market buoyed by declining feed-in tariffs, high electricity prices and €30 million in subsidies, while the primary reserve market boosts activity within the utilities sector.

Germany has released draft proposals on its Renewable Energies Act (EEG) to cap onshore wind and PV in response to states rallying for renewable energy growth to be curbed due to rising electricity prices and unnecessary strain on the national grid.

Germany’s ‘big four’ utilities have all referred to the growing importance of renewable energy in their business models in reporting their latest financial results.

Germany’s renewable energy trade associations have spoken up collectively about their country’s plans to introduce tenders to award rights for new large-scale projects.

Industry-watchers, environmental groups and think tanks have commented on news this morning that the biggest coal mining company in the US, Peabody Energy, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing downturn in the coal industry as a major factor.

Germany installed just over 50MWp of new PV in February, marking the lowest tally since the federal registry opened and sparking fears the government could fail to hit its own targets for the third year running.

A key theme of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue conference last week was how Germany’s Energiewende (‘energy transition’) has not only proven how to foster an explosion of renewable generation capacity through support schemes, but also how to integrate those renewables. Grid operators from Germany and Denmark discussed questions of feasibility, past, present and future.

The fight is still on to prove the transition to cleaner energy in Germany is proving to be a success, Amory Lovins, chief scientist and head of the Rocky Mountain Institute said yesterday.