Minister concerned about power exports / Slow grid extension
Spiegel Online
鈥淗endricks criticises massive rise in electricity exports鈥�
Germany鈥檚 environment minister Barbara Hendricks is concerned about the country鈥檚 CO2 emissions, writes Stefan Schultz at Spiegel Online. The continued high level of power production from coal was offsetting progress in climate protection achieved through the increase in renewable electricity production, Hendricks told Spiegel Online. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 due to the overcapacity of coal-fired power plants and the record level of power exports connected to that,鈥� she said. Those overcapacities offered a 鈥渧ery big鈥� potential for further emission reductions, Hendricks said. The government鈥檚 decision to retire eight lignite plants was necessary from a climate policy perspective and possible without creating power shortages.
Read the article in German .
Find a 91tv dossier on Germany鈥檚 climate policy including a factsheet on its climate targets here.
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Handelsblatt
E.ON and Uniper: One energy giant to become two utilities
German utility E.ON is making good progress with its plan to split conventional power production and renewables business, writes J眉rgen Flauger in the Handelsblatt. However, for both entities 鈥� Uniper for the conventional power production and E.ON for the renewables business 鈥� the biggest challenge is still ahead. 听Johannes Teyssen, who will keep the leadership at E.ON, and Klaus Sch盲fer as boss of Uniper, will have to prove after the split that both parts have better opportunities operating separately, Flauger writes.
Of 4,800 鈥渕ilestones鈥� needed to complete the spin-off process, 4,200 have been reached, Flauger writes. All employees have been placed in one of the companies, and while 40,000 will stay at E.ON, 14,000 will move to Uniper. The tricky task of distributing assets and debts between the two is still in process. A detailed report must be ready in time before shareholders finally approve the split on 8 June, Flauger writes.
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Frankfurter Rundschau
鈥淣ow鈥檚 the time to electrify the energy supply鈥�
Germany should follow through with the Energiewende and work on the electrification of the whole energy system, writes the executive director of the Association of Energy Market Innovators (BNE), Robert Busch, in an opinion piece for the Frankfurter Rundschau. 鈥淗eating and transport have to be powered by renewables, too, in order to cut overall emissions effectively,鈥� he says. The government must consider the larger electricity demand when planning new power grids.
Read the opinion piece in German .
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Finanztreff.de/dpa
鈥淕rid agency: power grid growth too slow鈥�
The extension of Germany鈥檚 power grid has failed to meet internal targets in 2015 and the lack of sufficient transmission capacity is forcing operators increasingly to shut down production capacity at certain times, the head of the grid agency Jochen Homann told press agency dpa, in a story picked up by Finanztreff.de. Consumers have to pay for the costs of the so-called redispatch measures, which could reach 1 billion euros by 2020. 鈥淭his is a clear signal that we have to move ahead faster with the grid extension,鈥� Homann said. For the three future north-south projects involving 2,200 kilometres of power lines, Homann said he expects greater acceptance among citizens if cables are to be buried.
Read the full article in German .
Find a 91tv dossier on the power grid here and a story on recent legal changes here.
