The German environment ministry (BMUB) has called suggestions by U.S. energy secretary Rick Perry to renegotiate the Paris Climate Agreement ‘absurd’, report Joe Ryan and Brian Parkin for Bloomberg. The agreement already lets nations adjust their own ...
30 Jun 2017, 00:00 One week ahead of the Hamburg G20 summit, the ambitious climate and energy action plan the German presidency was pushing hangs in the balance. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she is determined to make the meeting a success on ...
Investments in new coal plants “won’t pay off” at today’s price levels, RWE’s new CEO Rolf Martin Schmitz said in an interview with Berliner Morgenpost. Asked whether the major German utility would continue to build conventional power plants after ...
Germany’s federal cabinet has agreed on a law that is aimed at facilitating the search for a final repository for the country’s nuclear waste by 2031, the Federal Ministry for the Environment has said in a press release. Environment minister Barbara ...
The first annual presentation of balance sheet figures by German utilities RWE and E.ON, as well as by their spin-offs innogy and Uniper, has dealt a heavy blow to aspirations that the split would allow the battered companies a fresh start, Ralf Köpke ...
German energy utility RWE earned profits of 2.2 billion euros in the first nine months of 2017, the company announced. After record losses of 5.7 billion euros in the full year 2016, the company profited from higher prices in energy trade, and from a ...
The price drop at the onshore wind auction is good news for consumers and policymakers, but they increase the risk that the construction of wind energy projects will fall off a cliff in 2019 and 2020 in Germany, according to the Wind Energy Association ...
Germany has closed the Gundremmingen B nuclear reactor in Bavaria, leaving the country with seven reactors to be shut down by the scheduled nuclear exit at the end of 2022. Since starting operation in 1984, the reactor had produced about “330 billion ...
If the Social Democrats (SPD) lose their governing power after the upcoming vote in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), they may take a much stronger stance against plans to give up coal than they have in their current coalition with the Green Party, Claire ...
With the German parliament’s decision to transfer responsibility for the country’s nuclear waste storage to the state, arguably the most expensive project in the history of German energy policy, has been legally phased-out with a broad political consensus ...
German utility E.ON and Italian counterpart Enel have traded power using blockchain technology for the first time. E.ON called the first contract a “significant milestone” of the “Enerchain” initiative, 33 European companies that aim to develop a ...
Diesel car registrations in Germany fell by 21.3 percent in September compared to a year earlier, pushing their share of all registrations down to 36.3 percent. Petrol cars’ share rose to almost 60 percent, said the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) ...
Green Party energy spokesperson Julia Verlinden told journalists the conservatives’ blocking of “even the smallest progress” in the heating sector would be “fatal” for climate protection. Verlinden's statement was made in light of the government' ...
German energy company Uniper, together with three other co-owners of gas-fired power stations Irsching 4 and 5, has announced plans to decommission the “ultra-efficient and modern” plants for the second time in two years. In a joint press release, plant ...
The Energiewende’s costs cannot be entirely levied on power customers if Germany’s energy transition is going to succeed, Robert Busch, managing director of the Association of Energy Market Innovators (BNE), writes in a guest commentary for Handelsblatt. ...
The visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Berlin had special significance as it came just days after a difficult G7 summit had exposed deep rifts between Germany’s government and the current US administration, particularly over climate change, ...
Potsdam-based Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) has published a comparative study on renewable energies tender procedures in Brazil, France, Italy and South Africa. Findings show that auction prices in most countries continuously fell ...
In the aftermath of Dieselgate, Germany should not make the same mistake with regard to the energy transition by phasing out a technology without having enough alternatives, writes Nikolaus Doll in an opinion piece for Welt Online. This would be ...
This week's G7 summit in Italy comes “at the right moment" to talk about the Paris Climate Agreement with the US administration, but it will be a “continuous dialogue” in a long process until the G20 summit in Germany in July, said a German ...
Nuclear plant operators in Germany revoked around 20 lawsuits against the state in return for government guarantees of a limited financial liability for the country’s nuclear phase-out, Stefan Schultz writes on Spiegel Online. The utilities E.ON, RWE, ...
Germany must immediately and drastically reduce emissions in the transport sector to meet the goals of both the Paris Climate Agreement and Germany’s Climate Action Plan 2050, according to an analysis by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA). The UBA makes ...
The German Free Democratic Party (FDP) approved its election campaign programme at a federal party conference. The FDP wants to “end the sustained subsidies system of the EEG [Renewable Energy Act]” with its priority grid access and feed-in tariffs for ...
The law for automated driving is not detailed enough and creates legal insecurity for drivers, according to critics. Green party transport expert Stephan Kühn told Spiegel Online that it lacks a definition of what drivers are allowed to do while their car ...
Emissions in Germany have increased for two consecutive years due to the decommissioning of the country’s nuclear power plants, pro-nuclear organisation Environmental Progress writes. “German emissions would have declined had it not closed a nuclear plant ...
Germany’s unique energy policy has been a spectacular success, whatever its detractors say, argues John Mathews of Australia’s Macquarie University in an article carried by the energy collective. The rise of renewables in power generation and the decline ...
German chancellor Angela Merkel has described the climate talks at the G7 meeting in Italy as “very unsatisfying”. The US’s reluctance to say whether it will remain in or leave the international Paris Agreement on climate protection had created a “six ...
Voters in the German federal state of Saarland have clearly rejected a coalition of Social Democrats (SPD) and Left Party (Linke) by giving the governing conservatives of the Christian Democrats (CDU) a clear mandate to continue their grand coalition with ...
An expert panel wants to speed up the transformation of Germany’s transport sector to lower emissions and greater electric mobility, Sven Böll and Horand Knaup write for Der Spiegel. In its new study, the think tank Agora Verkehrswende*, an initator of ...
Amid a growing anti-coal movement, thousands of masked protesters in hooded white jumpsuits have blocked Germany’s coal infrastructure, Paul Hockenos reports for The Nation. Find the article in English here. Get background on the question when will ...
Stuttgart-based utility EnBW has cancelled a large pumped hydropower project in the Black Forest opposed by environmentalists, according to a dpa report carried by Stuttgarter Nachrichten. The project in Atdorf with a capacity of 1,400 megawatts and a ...
Regional power suppliers call on the federal government to put more emphasis on the development of the distribution grid, instead of focussing solely on the higher-voltage transmission grid, reports Johannes Schiller for German broadcaster MDR. “These ...
Swedish utility Vattenfall will use salt to store solar and wind power as heat in a Berlin pilot project. “Energy can be stored in salt without loss over weeks and months until it is needed,” said Vattenfall project manager Markus Witt in a press release. ...
Impending driving bans for diesel cars in several German cities could spell the end for the technology in the country, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports. Driving bans in Stuttgart and Munich have been substantiated in the past weeks and pending ...
The Association of Local Utilities (VKU) said the support for combined heat and power plants in the grid fee agreement was a “strong signal for the value of decentral generation” and created planning security. “Municipal utilities can now work intensively ...
The European Commission has given Germany’s plans to expand its charging infrastructure for alternative engines the green light, the Federal Ministry of Transport (BMVI) says in a press release. “We will give car users the confidence that they can ...
Randomly selected citizens have been invited to participate in talks over finding a final repository for Germany’s nuclear waste, Dagmar Dehmer reports for Der Tagesspiegel. Anti-nuclear activists from the country’s controversial nuclear waste disposal ...
08 Feb 2017
There was “strong competition” in the first solar tender following this year’s changes in Germany’s Renewable Energy Law, according to the Federal Grid Agency (BNetzA). Winning bids for arrays with a capacity of more than 750 kilowatts averaged 6.58 cents ...
Germany could ramp up its biomethane production from the current 9 terawatt hours (tWh) per year to 100 tWh by 2050, the German Energy Agency (dena) says in a press release. “Biomethane can contribute significantly to the energy transition without any ...
Environmental NGO WWF Germany is calling on the G20 finance ministers to show a clear commitment to climate protection at the upcoming meeting in Washington, DC., after they made no mention of the issue in the communiqué that followed their last meeting. ...
Germany and China vowed to continue their fight against climate change hours before U.S. President Donald Trump announces whether he will quit the Paris Agreement, according to a Reuters report. "We are living in times of global uncertainty and see ...
Social Democrat and former state secretary Brigitte Zypries is Germany’s new Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy. Previous economy minister Sigmar Gabriel handed over his duties today. “Sigmar Gabriel did a good job in tying up lose ends of ...
The Moorburg ruling means the plant will have to stop using river water for cooling, and instead run with its cooling tower only- making it dirtier and less efficient, writes Sven-Michael Veit in a commentary for left-wing newspaper tageszeitung (taz). ...
The misery of fossil utilities means lignite mines and power plants no longer ensure regional prosperity, writes Jeffrey Michel in a blog post for energytransition.de. The situation in eastern German lignite mining region Lusatia is particularly dramatic ...
In an interview with taz, Agora Energiewende* director Patrick Graichen says he expected the prospective government to abandon Germany’s 2020 climate targets. "Saving 150 million tonnes of CO2 within two years is clearly urealistic unless you want to ...
The new bill on the responsibility for the disposal of nuclear waste, passed by the German Bundestag on Thursday, is a “step of historic proportions” for the federal government, writes lawyer and expert in energy law Olaf Däuper in a guest commentary in ...
25 Jan 2017
Due to a huge switch from coal to gas power generation, EU power emissions fell 4.5 percent last year, according to an analysis by energy think tanks Sandbag and Agora Energiewende*. “Year-on-year, coal generation across Europe fell by 12 percent, whilst ...
The ‘Trump effect’ of right-wing populism and climate change scepticism could become an obstacle for the world's most advanced energy revolution in Germany, writes Aaron Wiener in the US magazine Mother Jones. Germany’s broad consensus on the shift ...
It is in Germany’s immediate interest to embrace the European dimension of the Energiewende, argues Rebecca Bertram in a blog post for energytransition.org. “Germany needs Europe to drive its own Energiewende forward,” writes Bertram, citing German power ...
Leading energy companies from Germany plan to take advantage of their know-how acquired through the Energiewende and take their business to the global stage, Jürgen Flauger and Franz Hubik write in Handelsblatt. Utility EnBW, which used to be heavily ...
The Energiewende enters a new phase with more emphasis on new technologies and e-mobility – driven by citizens – than on the nuclear exit and the switch to renewable energies, German utility EnBW’s CEO, Frank Mastiaux, tells Bernd Freytag and Susanne ...
The government must push ahead with the roll-out of a reliable charging infrastructure for e-cars and increase support for e-mobility research and development, according to German utility association BDEW. In a “roadmap to eco-mobility”, the utilities ...
Daimler started building a new 500 million euro battery factory in the East German town of Kamenz. The site is the carmaker's second factory for lithium batteries and should be operational by the middle of 2018, quadrupling production, according to a ...
The US will join the G7 in the communiqué of environment ministers meeting in Bologna, but it will acknowledge points of disagreement, a German official told reporters attending the meeting, according to a Bloomberg article by Chiara Albanese and Brian ...
Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), was “the key state for the energy transition” and needs to exit coal, former state environment minister and Green politician Bärbel Höhn said at an election rally, writes Thomas Peter in ...
The results of the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and Schleswig-Holstein impede the energy transition in both states, as “coal friends and wind power opponents dominate”, writes Joachim Wille in an article for Frankfurter Rundschau. The ...
Germany’s second largest city Hamburg plans to fundamentally reorganise its district heating system by using natural aquifers as year-round heat reservoirs, writes Frank Drieschner in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit. “It’s about storing the summer’s heat ...
A rule governing taxi registration is holding up the transition to e-vehicles, Martin Buchenau writes for Handelsblatt. As of the end of 2016, only vehicles manufactured for use as taxis may be registered. The regulation is aimed at preventing tampering ...
It will be difficult for Germany to reach its climate targets, because the country will retire a lot of nuclear capacity over the next years, renewables growth is expected to slow and the dependence on coal remains high, writes The Economist Intelligence ...
Germany’s primary energy consumption fell 1.4 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to statistics from energy market research group AG Energiebilanzen (AGEB). While economic growth and low January temperatures pushed energy consumption ...
The Green Party plans to base its campaign for the autumn federal elections on the core topics of environment and climate protection, announced Green parliamentary group head Katrin Göring-Eckhardt, writes Stefan Braun in Süddeutsche Zeitung. She said her ...
The controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which would connect Russia with Germany via the Baltic Sea, is affected by intense lobbying, especially by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, ...
German utility RWE warns of structural breaks in the Rhenish lignite mining area in western Germany if the government decides on an early coal-exit date, writes Carsten Sommerfeld in Neuss-Grevenbroicher Zeitung. “We need time for structural adaptation. ...
The federal cabinet today decided on reform drafts for two energy policy projects: The law regulating state support for combined heat and power (CHP) plants will be changed to include tenders for CHP facilities with a capacity of 1-50 megawatts, according ...
The ongoing transformation of Germany’s energy system towards decentralised renewable power sources could reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuel reserves in the event of a major blackout, Peter Lauwe of the Federal Office of Civil Protection and ...
22 Dec 2016, 00:00 2017 will be a year filled with a multitude of seminal events for Germany's energy and climate policy. Apart from presiding over the next G20 summit, Germany will be the venue for the UN's COP23 and see legal reforms of ...
Germany’s green energy industry has for years dashed from one record to the next, but this trend is set to slow down, Thorsten Knuf writes in a commentary for Frankfurter Rundschau. “Yes to green energy but, please, not too much, such is the government’s ...
Supporters of Germany’s move to decarbonise its economy say the country is in danger of falling behind rivals like China and the United States in the fast-growing business of developing and exporting clean-energy technologies, Stanley Reed writes for the ...
“Syria, Nicaragua, and now the United States” – these are the countries that do not take part in the Paris Agreement, Bernhard Pötter writes in a commentary for the left-wing newspaper Tageszeitung (taz). These cases might be different but they share a ...
Emission reduction targets for the building sector laid out in Germany’s Climate Action Plan 2050 combined with a planned limit to passing on modernising costs to tenants could “end in disaster” if landlords had to foot the bill, writes Michael Fuchs, ...
Germany saw strong onshore wind power expansion in the first half of 2017, but development could severely slow after the transition phase from set feed-in tariffs to auction-based remuneration by 2019, said German Wind Energy Association (BWE) and ...
The complex risks arising from climate change, fragility and conflict could contribute to the emergence and growth of non-state armed groups, according to a report by consultancy Adelphi, commissioned by the German Federal Foreign Office. The report found ...
The pipeline for natural gas that connects Germany and Russia via the Baltic Sea is not an instrument devised by Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder to circumvent Eastern Europe’s energy provision, historian ...
More than 300 civil society organisations call on “the remaining 19 members of the G20 to reaffirm their unfaltering commitment” to the implementation of The Paris Agreement after the US decision to leave the accord. The G20 engagement group Civil20 (C20) ...
The G20 summit in Germany in July 2017 will provide an important opportunity for major powers to resist backsliding on global climate goals, despite uncertainties after the US election, and it could even aid progress, according to a post on ...
Hesse’s Green economy minister Tarek al-Wazir wants Germany’s financial capital Frankfurt to become a “Green Finance Hub” for “all of Europe”, Falk Heunemann writes in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). The state’s green-conservative coalition ...
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has backed her foreign minister’s criticism of US Senate plans to further tighten economic sanctions on Russia, Thorsten Knuf writes in the Frankfurter Rundschau. “This is, to put it mildly, irregular behaviour by the US ...
In October 2017, renewable energy sources contributed more to Germany’s power mix than ever before over the period of one month, Spiegel Online reports. Solar, wind, hydro, and bioenergy plants produced 44.1 percent of the country’s electricity in October ...
German coal-fired power production needs to be more than halved by 2030 if the country is to reach the climate targets spelled out in its Climate Action Plan 2050, according to the Federal Environment Agency (UBA). This is best achieved by switching off ...
Germany’s supermarkets are to receive a climate-friendly makeover. Environment minister Barbara Hendricks, together with the association of German retailers (HDE), has started a 1.3 million euro promotion campaign aimed at identifying energy saving ...
Russian supplier Gazprom’s natural gas exports to Germany were at a record high in 2016 at 49.8 billion cubic metres, compared to 45.3 billion cubic metres in 2015, Vladimir Soldatkin and Jack Stubbs report for Reuters. The company currently supplies ...
Federal environment minister Barbara Hendricks criticised Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán’s plans for a law that would allow his government to ignore the national nuclear regulating institution when constructing new reactors, write Michael ...
Constructing a standardised and reliable charging infrastructure for e-cars is a key requirement for expanding the use of electric vehicles in Germany, Gero Lücking, director at energy provider LichtBlick, writes in a guest commentary for Handelsblatt. ...
National climate policy, in addition to international emissions trading schemes, only produces costs and does not lead to fewer emissions overall, writes economist Joachim Weimann in a guest commentary in German weekly Die Zeit. This is because excess ...
An automatic control system that turned the blades out of the wind too late is likely responsible for severely damaging several wind turbines at various locations in northern Germany during storms in December 2016, reports Stefan Schultz for Spiegel ...
The use of coal-fired power production and other fossil energy sources has to be quickly reduced in Germany in order to keep aging wind turbines cost-efficient, environmental organisation Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), green energy provider Naturstrom AG and ...
Germany passed on the presidency of the Group of Twenty major economies to Argentina on 1 December, the federal government said in a press release. Government spokesperson Steffen Seibert said the G20 had delivered important results in 2017, demonstrating ...
German company Sonnen seeks to disrupt the energy market by decentralising energy supply and connecting energy-producing households with one another, Stanley Reed writes in the New York Times. The company from Bavaria, which is active in Europe, the US ...
German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks’s statement about a possible scrap bonus for combustion engines hints at a coercive policy approach to reducing cutting emissions from the transport sector, Heike Göbel writes in a commentary for Frankfurter ...
The Federal Environment Agency’s (UBA) proposal to raise the reduced VAT on animal products has no chance of enforcement due to widespread opposition, but is principally a reasonable means for climate protection, writes Georg Ehring in an opinion piece ...
Pulling out of nuclear power production in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster has been “the most expensive panic decision a German government has ever taken,” statistics professor Walter Krämer said in an interview with manager magazin online. “In ...
Back in December 2015, the Paris Climate Agreement was hailed as a “historic” achievement- 17 months later it rather looks like international diplomacy has incurred an on-the-job accident of historic proportions, Andreas Mihm writes in Frankfurter ...
The right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD) questions the scientific consensus that climate change is mainly caused by humans, wants the country to exit the Paris Climate Agreement and abolish the recently adopted Climate Action Plan 2050, ...
North Rhine-Westphalia’s (NRW) Green environment minister Johannes Remmel has angered the party's SPD coalition partners, as well as the CDU, with a call to close 10 local coal-fired power plants, Guido M. Hartmann writes on Welt Online. Just days ...
Germany will have to build new power plants in the south of the country to preserve supply security after its nuclear exit in 2022, according to the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA). Rapid response plants with a total capacity of 1.2 gigawatts will be ...
Donald Trump’s wish for a better relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin could have a big impact on Europe’s natural gas supply, writes Daniel Wetzel in Die Welt. The impact would be felt if the new US president “gave up the Ukraine” and ...
German authorities will look into accusations by Environmental Action Germany (DUH) that carmaker BMW had used an illegal ‘defeat device’ to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in one of its diesel models. “The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) ...
24 Jan 2017, 00:00 Germany's economy and energy minister Sigmar Gabriel will not run for Chancellor in this year's federal election. Gabriel plans to step down from his current role to head the foreign office instead, various news outlets ...
Bloomberg highlights some of the ways the individual big German utilities could find the money needed to free themselves of the responsibility for storing nuclear waste. It comes after last week’s federal cabinet decision that sees nuclear power plant ...
If climate action and renewables growth are constrained under the new US administration, the EU must step up its efforts and join forces with China and India, according to a joint report by Allianz Climate Solutions, NewClimate Institute and Germanwatch. ...
The announcement by Germany’s would-be grand coalition partners CDU/CSU and SPD to water down the country’s national 2020 climate target “has shocked many climate activists in the Philippines”, Philippine Senator Loren Legarda writes in a guest article ...
In an interview with German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, Michael Vassiliadis, head of IG BCE, the German trade union for mining, chemicals and energy industries, says the Green Party’s insistence on a coal exit in the ongoing coalition talks is ...
Japan and Great Britain did not sign a joint statement with France, Germany and Italy in reaction to the US decision to leave the Paris Agreement, and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proposed to strike the references to the Paris Agreement from the ...
German economy minister Brigitte Zypries opposes a quick end to lignite-fired power production in the country, Christian Grimm writes in an article for Dow Jones Newswires carried by website finanztreff.de. “We cannot afford to shut down the large lignite ...
The EU Commission’s decision to extend the tariffs on Chinese PV products has raised concerns among environmental organisations that a slower expansion of solar power production might hinder the German energy transition’s (Energiewende) progress, writes ...
A global surge of trade restrictions and protectionism could derail Germany’s efforts in climate protection, Heinz Jürgen Schürmann writes in a commentary for Handelsblatt. “Global interconnection is indispensable for a successful limitation of CO 2 ...
Germany’s largest oil and gas company Wintershall has resisted the oil sector’s crisis and reported earnings before interest, taxes and special items of 517 million euros for 2016, writes Franz Hubik for Handelsblatt. Wintershall last year sold its 50 ...
The resolute stance of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in advocating climate protection on the international stage could be seen as being at odds with her energy and climate policy at home, Silke Kersting writes in Handelsblatt Global. “Not much is left ...
E-cars could overtake cars with conventional engines in market share by 2030, Angela Schmid writes for WirtschaftsWoche, referring to a study by consultancy PwC. “One in three new cars registered in Europe in 2030 could be an e-car,” she writes, compared ...
The transition to a climate-friendly transport sector can deliver a net economic benefit for Germany in some scenarios, but only if the country invests heavily in charging and grid infrastructure as well as workforce adjustments, according to a study by ...
US business magazine Fortune published a long article by Jeffrey Ball on the generational project German Energiewende, society’s costs for the expansion of renewables, the benefits of the transition and the possibilities for other states to follow Germany ...
Germany and China reiterated their calls on the US administration to commit to international climate protection efforts and stay in the Paris Agreement at a climate conference in Berlin. Germany is currently trying “on all levels” to persuade the US ...
Germany may boast an image as a frontrunner for decarbonising economic activity but the country’s love of big car engines has foiled aspirations to steadily lower greenhouse gas emissions, David Charter writes for The Times. “While only 11,000 Germans ...
Germany’s excess power spilling over into Poland and Czech Republic on days with high renewables generation creates political and economic tension, writes Zeke Turner for Wall Street Journal. “The fallout has become acute for Polish and Czech coal power ...
15 Mar 2017
15 Mar 2017, 00:00 “A Reporter’s Guide to Germany's Energy Transition” offers journalists covering energy and climate policy an overview of key stories, experts/decision-makers and facts on Germany’s landmark effort to mitigate climate change. Click ...
12 Jan 2017, 00:00 The German government lacks clear overview of the costs of the country’s shift to renewable energy, according to the country’s Federal Court of Auditors. The auditors said the economy ministry had “no overview of the financial ...
The renewable surcharge scheme in Germany’s renewable energy act (EEG) is increasingly slackening the Energiewende, writes Robert Busch, chairman of Germany’s Association of Energy Market Innovators (BNE), in a guest commentary for Frankfurter Rundschau. ...
The diesel emissions debate has “further sparked” customers’ interest in Deutsche Post DHL’s electric delivery van, said the company’s financial head Melanie Kreis in a telephone conference, reports Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Read the article in ...
German power customers will pay more than 35 billion euros in taxes, fees, and surcharges with their electricity bills in 2017, the utilities lobby German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) writes in a press release. “This is more than ...
The decision of 48 poorer countries to terminate coal-fired power production has sparked calls for Germany to envisage a speedy coal exit as well, the Rheinische Post newspaper reports. The announcement of the Climate Vulnerable Forum’s countries at the ...
France is importing much of its power from Germany and other neighbouring countries to cope with the cold winter weather, Stefan Brändle writes for Berliner Zeitung. Almost 40 percent of French homes are heated with electricity from the country’s 58 ...
The German government’s trademark Energiewende policy has failed, write Angela Hennersdorf, Niklas Hoyer, Andreas Macho and Dieter Schnaas in a feature article for business weekly WirtschaftsWoche. Despite ongoing high public support for the project, ...
A significant drop in the price of PV modules has so far had only a moderate effect on solar power investments in Germany, according to website strom-report.de. Prices for PV modules fell by more than 70 percent between 2010 and 2016 while at the same ...
Global business leaders including Kurt Bock, CEO of German chemical giant BASF, have called on G20 governments to up their efforts on climate protection, Cordula Tutt writes in WirtschaftsWoche. Bock, who heads the B20 Energy, Climate & Resource ...
Municipal utility WSW in the western German city of Wuppertal says that it has launched the world’s first green power trading platform based on blockchain technology. Clients can buy electricity from local renewable power producers and determine their own ...
08 Nov 2016, 00:00 After months of dispute, the German government has reached a tentative agreement on a roadmap to wean the world’s fourth largest economy from fossil fuels almost entirely by 2050, according to press reports. A last-minute Climate Action ...
German utility Uniper is set to put its new coal plant Datteln 4 into operation despite a dire outlook for the industry in the country, Craig Morris writes on energytransition.org. “With a billion euros already sunk in the plant, Uniper’s decision to ...
The vice-chairman of the CDU's parliamentary group, Michael Fuchs, says wind power expansion in northern Germany "urgently" needed to be stopped due to mounting costs linked with Germany's lagging grid expansion, Andreas Mihm writes ...
The German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE) proposes to introduce a CO₂ price for energy consumption in heating, writes Dagmar Dehmer in an article in Tagesspiegel. According to a study, carried out by consultancy Prognos, the levy of 25 euros per tonne ...
A plan for an exit from coal-fired power generation in Germany will not necessarily be the result of the structural commission agreed by the current government in the country’s climate action plan 2050. That was the claim made by Michael Vassiliadis, head ...
The German Green Party has criticised the Social Democrat candidate for chancellor, Martin Schulz, for not having taken a clear stance on climate protection yet, news agency dpa reports. The Green’s parliamentary group chairman Anton Hofreiter told dpa ...
Over two thirds of Germans say CO 2 emissions should be assigned a price to finance the transition to carbon-neutral technologies, a survey commissioned by heating manufacturer Stiebel Eltron has found. 70 percent of respondents said they favoured such ...
Representatives of the G20 dialogue forums business (B20), civil society organisations (C20) and think tanks (T20) have together called on the Group of Twenty member countries to take the lead in implementing the Paris Climate Agreement. They demand a ...
German industry associations such as BDEW, Zukunft Erdgas and the German Biogas Association released a joint statement emphasising the potential of energy source gas for climate protection. Gas could help Germany reach its climate targets in heating, ...
The real estate business is vital to creating infrastructure needed to expand e-mobility, writes Christian Hunziker in an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Owners of parking structures are among the most directly affected and existing lots ...
Germany’s planned financial support for reserve power plants has been met with scepticism by the European Commission, news agency dpa reports in an article carried by Handelsblatt. The Commission has doubts about the necessity of this “important part of ...
The Green Party’s parliamentary group in the Bundestag (federal parliament) has decided on a programme for an “ecological modernisation of the economy” that would overturn the current economic order in Germany, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports ...
In its report “A stress test for coal in Europe under the Paris Agreement," the Berlin-based climate research institute Climate Analytics says the EU will have to end CO₂ emissions from all coal plants by 2030 in order to meet its commitments under ...
Exiting coal-fired power generation in Germany is a matter of when, not if, according to a meta study by the Wuppertal Institute, commissioned by the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU). The study analyses position papers and scientific ...
New guidelines for the industry in the German government’s Climate Action Plan 2050 bear traces of a planned economy, writes Christoph Eisenring in Neue Zürcher Zeitung. He cites measures such as expanding the area of arable land reserved for ecological ...
For Germany to meet the Paris Climate Agreement targets, a phase out of coal-fired power generation must be complete by 2035 and the oldest facilities shut down as soon as 2019, according to a study by the Institute for Applied Ecology (Öko-Institut) and ...
Germany’s largest industrial manufacturer Siemens might soon end its advance into e-car engine production together with French supplier Valeo, Thomas Hanke and Axel Höpner write in Handelsblatt. By the end of 2021, Siemens might make use of a put option ...
The federal government, regional states, and municipalities will have to invest in energy efficiency in new building projects, according to a draft law, reports Klaus Stratmann in Handelsblatt. The economic and environmental ministries’ proposal for a law ...
Initiating the end of combustion engine technology in Germany with corresponding legislation would be in accordance with European law, environmental organisation Greenpeace says in a press release. According to a legal opinion commissioned by the ...
German wind power expansion accounted for 44 percent of total capacity growth across Europe in 2016, Adam Vaughan reports for the Guardian. There was an “increasingly small number of countries connecting serious amounts of new wind power” in the EU. ...
The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) will lower the equity interest rates for operators of power grids and gas networks from 9.05 to 6.91 percent for new, and from 7.14 to 5.12 percent for old facilities. The lower rates- to be applied in 2018 for gas and ...
Last year, German households had their power cut off due to unpaid bills around 330,000 times, according to the draft of the Federal Network Agency's (BNetzA) annual monitoring report, seen by news agency dpa. This represents a small year-on-year ...
A rule of thumb in international environmental policy so far has been that it will move forward as long as the US and China agree – “but this rule seems to have become obsolete”, Jan Heidtmann writes in Süddeutsche Zeitung. At the latest G7 summit, as ...
After three years of rapid shrinking and the loss of more than 100,000 jobs, Germany’s solar industry seems to have bottomed out, Franz Hubik writes on Handelsblatt Online. “Although the market has shrunk to a fifth of its original size, it now was at ...
Modernising the energy performance of Germany’s building stock contributes to housing shortages due to rising rent costs, Dietmar Walberg, director of the Modern Construction Consortium (ARGE e.V.), said in an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung. Reducing ...
Small solar energy companies that invest heavily in research and development are Germany’s last hope of gaining a good share in an industry in which the country has invested billions in subsidies, Daniel Wetzel writes in weekly newspaper Welt am Sonntag. ...
The German federal ministries, together with the Chancellery, have agreed on a national Climate Action Plan 2050 in time for COP22 in Marrakesh after months of dispute, reports Markus Wacket for Reuters. The federal cabinet is to approve the plan on ...
It is surprising how long it takes for the subject of “negative emission” to make its way from scientific models into climate policy mainstream, write Oliver Geden from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and Stefan Schäfer ...
German business leaders, trade unions and government officials are presenting a common front against US president Donald Trump’s protectionism, Klaus Stratmann writes in Handelsblatt Global Edition. In a joint statement, Germany’s new economy minister ...
Sweden’s Vattenfall AB and Norway’s Statkraft AS say they might close some pumped-hydro plants in Germany, while Alpiq Holding AG may sell some units in Switzerland because they are no longer as profitable as they once were, write Weixin Zha and Jesper ...
The German government does not yet have a unified position on the reform of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) planned for next year, write Till Hoppe and Klaus Stratmann for Handelsblatt. “We must not further embarrass ourselves as the ...
The environment ministry of the federal state of Hesse has issued a licence to energy company RWE to dismantle the decommissioned nuclear plant Biblis near Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports online. “Nuclear energy is now a thing of ...
Germany will have to double its share of renewable power and cut its use of coal and oil by half to reach its official target of cutting CO 2 emissions by 55 percent by 2030, according to energy think tank Agora Energiewende*. The country must also use 30 ...
The incoming German government has two options to replace coal power with cleaner sources to reach climate targets, writes analyst Martin Brough in a Deutsche Bank Research paper. The first is to use natural gas as a bridge fuel, while the second is to ...
E.ON will shed assets and cut jobs to reduce its debt pile after impairments on its former power plant unit Uniper triggered a 16 billion euro net loss- more than its current market value, reports Christoph Steitz for Reuters. Cost savings will result in ...
Delays in approving the Climate Action Plan 2050 are the reason projects for structural change in eastern Germany’s lignite mining regions aren't yet receiving funding, writes Kurt Stenger in the socialist newspaper Neues Deutschland. The 2016 ...
The term “fracking”, commonly understood in Germany as unconventional gas drilling by means of chemicals, has discredited almost any form of onshore welling in the country regardless of its actual environmental impact, Frank Pergande writes in Frankfurter ...
The Moorburg ruling by the European Court of Justice probably implies that “Germany’s most important economic hub” is powered by a plant which is operated illegally, writes Olaf Preuß in a commentary in Die Welt. If the plant has to go offline for legal ...
In preparation for the federal parliamentary elections 2017, Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union is considering calling for an end to Germany's core renewable energy support, writes Stefan Schultz for Spiegel Online. The party would “work ...
The federal state of Saxony deliberately blocks the expansion of wind power on its territory, the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) says in a press release. “The sole focus of Saxony’s energy policy is on romanticising lignite in Lusatia, and this ...
Germany’s image as a pioneer and enabler of renewable energy has suffered over the past years due to the diesel emissions scandal and the government’s reluctance to initiate a coal phase-out, writes Gregor Vulturius, research fellow at the Stockholm ...
Germany's ambitious greenhouse gas reduction plans are facing a major obstacle: an apparent addiction to coal, reports Irene Banos Ruiz for Deutsche Welle. Mining company RWE is planning the expansion of some of Europe's biggest coal mines, ...
Tesla CEO Elon Musk criticised the Industrial Union of Metalworkers (IG Metall) and insisted there would not be any job cuts at German car supplier Grohmann in the coming five years, reports news agency dpa in an article carried by Handelsblatt. IG Metall ...
The chief of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chancellery, Peter Altmaier, has said that while Germany is intent on meeting its 2020 emissions-reduction goals, it was not clear it would succeed. “We don’t know if we’ll make it,” Altmaier said at the debate ...
Most people in Germany doubt that the country’s energy transition can be pursued according to plans and without greater difficulties, according to a representative survey that utility RWE presented at a debate meeting in Berlin. A majority of 69 percent ...
Transforming the transport and heating sectors to use electricity as their main source of energy is the next big phase of Germany’s Energiewende, writes Jürgen Flauger in Handelsblatt. Sector coupling opens up new markets for Germany’s power suppliers and ...
About a third of German utilities will raise their electricity prices by an average of 3.5 percent in 2017, according to price comparison website verivox. This means additional costs of 41 euros per year for an average four-person home. The suppliers ...
The head of German mining trade union IG BCE, Michael Vassiliadis, opposes a quick phase-out of coal-fired power production, Handelsblatt reports based on an interview by news agency dpa. A speedy decommissioning of lignite power plants would be “absurd,” ...
Germany’s federal government, the states, and its municipalities have agreed on a fund worth one billion euros to invest in measures to prevent a looming driving ban in many of the country’s inner cities, the government says in a press release. ...
G20 agriculture ministers called for more sustainable use of resources in a joint declaration following the first G20 ministers meeting under the current German presidency. “In light of the growing global population and the goals of the Agenda 2030, ...
Environment minister Barbara Hendricks’ proposal to aid the breakthrough of e-mobility with a mandatory quota for e-cars is misguided, argues Klaus Stratmann in a commentary for business daily Handelsblatt. He says EU emission limits are a suitable ...
Germany and other EU member states should strengthen cooperation on climate protection, in light of the upcoming US administration's likely reversal of climate legislation, writes Susanne Dröge in an commentary for the German Institute for ...
Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks does not expect the cabinet to approve her Climate Action Plan 2050 before COP22 in Marrakesh next week. “My assessment at this moment is that it will be ready for approval in December,” Hendricks said at a ...
Germany is demonstrating leadership across the EU in transparently reporting its fossil fuel subsidies, but its subsidies applied through tax deductions in transport and electricity remain very high, write the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the ...
The number of publicly accessible e-car charging stations in Germany increased by 12 percent from mid-2016 to year’s end for a total of 7,407 in December 2016, the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) says in its bi-annual report on ...
Three days before parliamentary elections in Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU party has taken the lead in polls, ahead of the governing SPD, national TV station ZDF reports. The CDU ...
Germany’s largest car manufacturer VW struggles to comply with China’s planned quota for e-cars, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports. “The e-quota certainly is going to be a challenge,” a VW manager for China told journalists on Thursday in ...
Germany remains the fifth most competitive economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Competitiveness Report. “The excellent performance of its innovation and business ecosystem is particularly noteworthy: Germany’s ...
The government coalition of the conservative CDU/CSU and Social Democrats (SPD) has failed to agree on a law (GEG) that would set new energy efficiency standards for Germany’s buildings by 2019, Jens Tartler writes in Der Tagesspiegel. Social-Democrat ...
Almost 90 percent of bids from Germany’s second round of auctions for ground-mounted solar PV projects – which was carried-out in 2015 – have successfully been realised and will receive support, writes Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) in a press release. “ ...
Germany’s electricity tax is no longer justified in its current form and should be lowered, Hubertus Heil, deputy chairman of the Social Democrats’ (SPD) parliamentary group, said in an interview with Der Tagesspiegel. The tax was introduced by the SPD ...
German utility E.ON and service station operator Tank & Rast are collaborating on updating electric vehicle charging points at more than 90 locations along German motorways, E.ON has announced in a press release. E.ON will install and operate ultra ...
Like many countries around the world, the Philippines could benefit from adopting certain German Energiewende policies, Laurence Delina writes in a commentary on inquirer.net. “Germany is obviously politically, economically and socially different” from ...
For a long time, Germany's insistence on the energy transition raised eyebrows, Nils-Viktor Sorge writes in an opinion piece for manager magazine Online. Six years on from the Fukushima disaster, it's the USA that increasingly looks like the ...
The G7 and G20 summits provide European leaders with the opportunity to carefully “push the Trump administration to take a stance on climate”, write Sara Stefanini and Andrew Restuccia for Politico. German chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to the White ...
German holding company Terra E needs 4 billion euros to construct a large battery cell factory that would create about 3,000 jobs, reports Angela Hennersdorf in WirtschaftsWoche. The location – to be decided in September – had to be “close to German ...
Regional smart markets can help lower re-dispatch costs in the German power grid, according to a new study by think tank Agora Energiewende.* Depending on the local conditions, measures such as using more power-to-heat or actively controlling night ...
Tesla has doubled its sales in Germany in the first half of 2017, manager-magazin.de reports. The US electric car manufacturer has sold 2,075 of its electric cars in Germany since January. However, while Tesla’s sales figures were clearly surging, German ...
The chief of Angela Merkel's chancellery, Peter Altmaier, wants ambitious EU and international goals for climate protection, instead of special national targets. “I am completely convinced that the path of national targets is wrong,” he told a ...
German utility company Uniper swung back to profit, posting a net income of 782 million euros in the first nine months of 2017, after a loss of 4.2 billion euros due to "substantial impariment charges" in the same period last year, the company ...
It is plausible that Chancellor Angela Merkel first heard about the VW emissions scandal in the media, as even industry experts were surprised by the extent of the problem, Roland Pichler writes in an opinion piece in Stuttgarter Zeitung. “Yet the ...
Wintershall, Germany’s largest crude oil and natural gas producer, is determined to take part in the Euro-Russian gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports. BASF subsidiary Wintershall said that, like its partners- ...
Next year’s power price increase is not the fault of wind and solar power generation operators, writes Olaf Ridder in a commentary for Frankfurter Rundschau. The rise is the price consumers have to pay for the delay in grid extensions, one of many ...
Many climate scientists are worried that incoming US President Donald Trump’s administration will confound international negotiations, Michael Bauchmüller writes in Süddeutsche Zeitung. “There’s either a scenario Bush or a scenario crazy in store for US ...
Germany’s public utilities will be at the forefront of implementing the decentralised energy supply required by the Energiewende, Katherina Reiche, director of the German Association of Local Utilities (VKU), said in an interview with Welt kompakt. Reiche ...
The problem of finding a final repository for Germany’s nuclear waste does not have “a solution in the true sense of the word, but only makeshift at best”, Reinhard Breidenbach writes in an opinion piece for Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz. Advocates of nuclear ...
RWE spinoff Innogy is scouring Silicon Valley and startup hotspots in Tel Aviv, London and Berlin for new ideas on the digitalisation of the energy sector, reports Jürgen Flauger in Handelsblatt. "Digital change will radically transform the energy ...
Germany’s fragmented political landscape could become the driving force behind the country’s energy transition, writes Nick Butler for Financial Times. New types of government coalitions after the 2017 federal elections could include, for example, the ...
Germany’s primary energy consumption rose by 0.8 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year, according to preliminary calculations by energy market group AG Energiebilanzen. This was due to a strong economy, the group wrote in a press release. Germany ...
In 1987, Germany’s first wind park began operation in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, reports the news agency dpa in an article carried by WirtschaftsWoche. Thirty turbines with a total of 1,000 kilowatt capacity were installed. Today, four modern ...
The environment ministry’s new Climate Protection Report showed that the 2020 emissions reduction target of 40 percent could only be reached if the German economy collapsed, writes Michael Bauchmüller in Süddeutsche Zeitung. “In theory, the German climate ...
According to Thorsten Deppner, an expert on environmental law, the German state would not necessarily have to pay huge sums in compensation for shutting down coal-fired electricity plants, despite a precedent set by a recent constitutional court ruling on ...
Despite the outcome of last week’s G7 summit in Taormina, Italy, a consensual statement by all leaders “should be the aspiration” for the G20 summit in Germany in July, said Lars-Hendrik Röller, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s economic advisor and the ...
The German government’s spending on energy research has more than doubled since 2006, the German Parliament (Bundestag) said in a press release. Research investments rose from around 400 million euros in 2006 to more than 875 million euros in 2016, ...
German carmakers are now envisaging the mass production of e-cars, which will have wide-ranging consequences for suppliers, writes Johannes Winterhagen in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Many highly specialised German companies focusing on combustion ...
Volkswagen, Germany’s largest car manufacturer, has agreed to a settlement of more than 2.1 billion Canadian dollars (1.5 billion euros) for manipulating emission tests, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports. Together with its subsidiary Audi, VW ...
Diesel cars use more fuel and thus emit more CO₂ than carmakers specify, according to previously unreleased test results by Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), reports Bernhard Pötter for tageszeitung (taz). In the course of investigations ...
Investor demand for innogy, RWE’s renewable spin-off, exceeds the number of shares on offer in the stock market debut scheduled for next week, reports Handelsblatt. “The initial public offering of RWE subsidiary innogy seems to turn into a success story ...
Oskar Lafontaine, a prominent German politician and Left Party leader in the small German state Saarland, frequently makes his opposition towards rapid expansion of wind power a campaign topic for this week’s state elections, writes Christoph Schmidt ...
Over the past three years, the federal government succeeded in bringing order and legal security to Germany’s energy transition, the seminal project known as Energiewende, federal economy minister Sigmar Gabriel said presenting his ministry’s economic ...
Introducing a toll for passenger cars on German highways might yield far lower returns than the annual 500 million euros expected by transport minister Alexander Dobrindt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports. A study by the NGO Green Budget ...
Germany’s lignite industry received a lot of support at an energy conference in eastern Germany, economic newspaper Zeitung für kommunale Wirtschaft reports. At the Eastern German Energy Forum, the state premier of Saxony-Anhalt, Rainer Haseloff, said ...
The operating results presented by Germany’s most powerful energy executives, Peter Terium and Johannes Teyssen, could not be more different, writes Jürgen Flauger in a commentary for Handelsblatt. While Mr Terium announced net profits of 1.5 billion ...
16 Jan 2017
A concrete year for a German coal exit can't be specified, because of the many factors involved, according to economy minister Sigmar Gabriel, writes the Rheinische Post. “I don’t think much of this chase for phase-out dates,” which could easily lead ...
Germany’s G20 presidency is “an important opportunity for other major powers to resist backsliding” on climate change, especially in view of uncertainty over the new US president Donald Trump's energy policy, writes Climate Home. The German ...
Germany’s Energiewende might not be an export hit but it helps other countries questioning their own energy policy, Giorgio V. Müller writes in Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ). According to figures from the World Energy Council, a majority of ...
The Green Party would have the opportunity to help re-adjust Germany’s climate protection policy if it entered into a coalition with the CDU/CSU and the FDP, said Green member of the Bundestag Renate Künast in an interview with Tagesspiegel. Künast called ...
The outcome of the general election in Germany will not substantially influence the country’s relations with the United States, as Angela Merkel is likely to remain chancellor, says Elmar Brok, Christian Democrat member of the European Parliament in an ...
Partly due to weak winds last year, earnings at RWE renewables spin-off innogy fell 7 percent to 4.2 billion euros in 2016, the company's first fiscal year as an independent company, reports Guy Chazan for the Financial Times. Revenues dropped four ...
Even with the EU Commission’s new energy package, Europe’s energy policy remains unfinished as member states continue to fend for themselves, writes Michael Bauchmüller in an opinion piece for Süddeutsche Zeitung. The problem is that each country has its ...
German transmission grid operators (TSO) have already had to use large amounts of this year’s "winter reserve", a pool of conventional backup power plants to prevent shortfalls in power supply, according to a joint press release from grid ...
Even though renewable power is now cheaper than conventional fossil power in many countries, it would be wrong to assume global energy and climate policy will become “a no-brainer,” Brigitte Knopf, secretary general of the Mercator Research Institute on ...
The German Energiewende has a “mixed, but very troubling” record, Christine Sturm says in a long article on the Energiewende for Issues in Science and Technology, an online magazine from The University of Texas at Dallas. “On the plus side is continued ...
The spectacular boom and bust of Germany’s solar industry provides a cautionary tale for state intervention in the name of clean energy, according to an article in Handelsblatt Global Magazine. While ordinary German consumers have been forced to pay ...
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s gentle opening speech at the Frankfurt car show contrasts sharply with her recent statement that she was “furious” at the carmakers because of the emissions scandal, writes Martin Gropp in a commentary in the Frankfurter ...
The fees that consumers pay for Germany’s electricity grid are too high and unfairly distributed across the country's regions, writes Malte Kreutzfeldt in an opinion piece in tageszeitung (taz). He calls for a nationwide harmonisation of the ...
The EU energy package is not ambitious enough to help Europe reach the targets laid out in the Paris Agreement, writes Joachim Wille in an opinion piece for Frankfurter Rundschau. The label says “Clean Energy for all Europeans”, but “whoever opens the ...
Diesel cars continue to fall out of favour with people interested in buying a new car in Germany. In a survey commissioned by the German Energy Agency (dena), 17 percent of potential car buyers said they planned to buy a diesel car, compared to 21 percent ...
In a far-reaching decision, eastern German energy company and operator of one of the country’s largest lignite mining operations LEAG scrapped plans by former owner Vattenfall to expand one of its lignite mines, and downsizing or putting on hold other ...
The Federal Constitutional Court is to rule on utilities’ rights in their case against the government over the shut-down of nuclear power plants, Corinna Budras writes for FAZ. Nuclear power plant operators RWE, E.ON and Vattenfall are suing the German ...
The government of central German federal state Thuringia strictly opposes the construction of major high-voltage transmission lines on its territory, Thüringer Allgemeine reports. The government led by the Left Party (Linke) argues the grid operators’ ...
Virtual power plant specialist Next Kraftwerke, one of Germany’s best known energy start-ups, has sold a minority stake of 34 percent to Dutch renewable utility Eneco. The deal would boost its expansion in Europe, and “contribute to the joint ambition of ...
German luxury carmaker BMW has unveiled its new all-electric model aimed at the mass market. BMW said the four-door sedan dubbed “i Vision Dynamics” will have a range of 600 kilometres. CEO Harald Krüger said his company is “electrifying the heart of the ...
Bavarian state interior minister Joachim Hermann calls for the electrification of old train tracks in light of pollution from diesel emissions, reports news agency dpa in an article carried by Süddeutsche Zeitung. “I want us to talk about a special ...
Influential municipal shareholders are threatening to pull out of Germany's largest electricity provider, RWE, unless the company's prospects brighten, reports Jürgen Flauger in German business daily Handelsblatt Global Edition. Guntram Pehlke, ...
The European Commission has found German plans to support high-efficiency cogeneration (combined heat and power – CHP) to be in line with EU state aid rules. The announcement affirmed parts of the deal that the German federal government had struck with ...
Influential partisans of Social Democrat Sigmar Gabriel continue to rebuke the economy minister for budging from plans to align grid fees across Germany, Ulrich Milde writes in Leipziger Volkszeitung. “I’m very angry that the promised fairer allocation of ...
Aided by funding from Germany’s economy ministry, 60 companies- including heavyweights such as Bosch, Siemens, E.ON and IBM- have teamed up in the organisation EE-Bus to openly discuss scenarios and develop data sets that make equipment communicate, ...
Several industry representatives support the call to abolish the electricity tax in Germany, writes Jens Tartler in Tagesspiegel. Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) and German Engineering Federation (VDMA) argue that power ...
Germany’s fourth largest utility EnBW plans to pull out of fossil power generation by 2025, according to an internal strategy paper, reports Jürgen Flauger in Handelsblatt. Conventional power generation does not feature in the company’s medium-term plan ...
Danish offshore wind company Dong’s subsidy-free bid at Germany’s first auction for new offshore wind parks was based on sound economics, Martin Neubert, managing director of the company’s German operations, said at the Hanover Fair 2017, Germany’s ...
Thanks to unexpectedly strong demand, new budget e-car maker e.GO has expanded its production plans, reports public broadcaster WDR. The company aims to make up to 100,000 electric vehicles per year, considerably scaling up original plans for 20,000 cars. ...
With 144 charging points to supply more than 4,000 cars per day, the medium-sized Swabian van interior racking systems manufacturer Sortimo plans to build the world’s largest e-vehicle charging station in 2018, writes Bernd Freytag in the Frankfurter ...
Aspiration and ambitious targets are needed to make the transition to a low-carbon economy, but the German federal government has done too little, according to emissions data by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), writes Michael Bauchmüller in an ...
The EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is far too complex- and current reform efforts seem unlikely to lead to the necessary changes, writes Klaus Stratmann in an opinion piece for Handelsblatt. “The complex system of free allocation, product ...
Germany’s pioneering turn toward clean energy is approaching another milestone with a new round of auctions for wind power expected to push the price of electricity from renewables to record lows, write Weixin Zha, Brian Parkin and Tino Andresen in a ...
The emissions fraud scandal engulfing Germany’s largest car manufacturer Volkswagen is not the only case in which companies manipulated their diesel engines to fulfil exhaust regulations, Martin Gropp writes for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Also ...
Peter Terium and Johannes Teyssen, former CEOs of Germany’s traditional utilities RWE and E.ON respectively, face each other in a new green energy rivalry after both companies split in two last year, writes Helmut Bünder in a portrait of both men in ...
German transport minister Alexander Dobrindt called on foreign carmakers to follow BMW’s, VW’s and Daimler’s example of buyer’s bonuses and introduce “similar measures”, reports Reuters in an article carried by Handelsblatt. Read the article in German ...
Russia continues to use energy – and specifically natural gas company Gazprom – as a tool to undermine the relationship between Ukraine and the European Union, writes Ukrainian foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin in a guest commentary in Handelsblatt. “More ...
The new procedure laid out in the reform bill to search for a final nuclear waste repository is a step in the right direction, but involving the public will not prevent protests, writes Uwe Westdörp in an opinion piece in Osnabrücker Zeitung. “In the end, ...
German household consumers save 10 percent of heating energy on average, if they receive a one-time energy efficiency counselling and monthly information on consumption, according to results of a pilot project coordinated by German Energy Agency (dena), ...
The projected state fund for financing the storage of Germany’s nuclear waste may seem like a gift to the utilities suffering from the Energiewende’s consequences – but it is not, writes Andreas Mihm in a commentary for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “ ...
Exiting coal in Germany is a generational project that takes 30 years, says Helmar Rendez, chairman of Germany’s LEAG, the company responsible for lignite operations in eastern German region Lusatia. Rendez plans to decide by the summer if LEAG will ...
Mining Union IG BCE has rejected the Green Party’s proposal for a lignite phase-out, report Silke Kersting and Frank Specht in Handelsblatt. It did not do justice to the topic to “simply view it from the perspective of campaign planning for the upcoming ...
German engineering giant Siemens has rejected criticism from the Green party that it lets private households pay for its electricity bill as “misleading” and “outrightly wrong”, Handelsblatt Online reports. Green MP Bärbel Höhn previously said it was ...
A new draft of federal environment minister Barbara Hendricks’ contentious Climate Action Plan 2050 says that there would be no new coal-fired power plants or expansions of existing open pit mines, writes Michael Bauchmüller in Süddeutsche Zeitung. “With ...
"Many election manifesto pledges concerning the German energy transition project appear to be based on wishful thinking and contain little information about the measures required or the expected costs," writes Deutsche Bank Research in a paper ...
The federal government has supported Germany’s private economy with a record amount of financial assistance and tax exemptions in the current legislative period, reports Cerstin Gammelin in Süddeutsche Zeitung. According to the government’s draft subsidy ...
The renewables surcharge could decrease significantly if the system were based not only on electricity consumption, but also on final energy consumption in the heating and transport sectors, according to a study by the Institute for Ecological Economy ...
Germany lags behind in the worldwide expansion of e-mobility, according to a new report by environmental NGO WWF and German renewable power provider LichtBlick. “We are only at the beginning, but the trend towards e-mobility is gaining momentum globally. ...
German utilities E.ON, Uniper, RWE and innogy are affected by the competition in the renewable power market and the costs of the country’s nuclear phase-out, but hope for better conditions after the general elections in autumn, writes Frank-Thomas Wenzel ...
11 Oct 2017
Germany’s environment ministry fears high emissions from coal-fired power plants and transport will make the country miss its 2020 climate targets by a wider margin than previously anticipated. The ministry’s warning in an internal paper seen by the Clean ...
The beginning of the decommissioning of the nuclear plant Neckarwestheim should have been a moment of joy for all anti-nuclear activists in the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg but instead it was met with protests once again, Josef Kelnberger ...
Uniper is the “surprise winner of the German energy market” with a nearly 20 percent rise in its share price since the company’s stock market debut, writes Helmut Bünder in an opinion piece for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “With this, the utility – ...
Environmental Action German (DUH) says its recent tests suggested that German carmaker BMW used defeat devices like those at the heart of the so called Dieselgate scandal to throttle nitrogen oxide (NO x) emissions on the test stand, despite having ...
After a record loss of 16 billion euros, CEO Johannes Teyssen sees his utility E.ON on track to become “a perfectly normal” company again, Helmut Bünder and Brigitte Koch write in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Since profits in the power and gas ...
Engineers in Germany are storing water for hydroelectricity inside wind turbines, allowing the towers to act like massive batteries when the wind stops, writes Michael Coren for online news outlet Quartz. “It’s the first major example of the two ...
Fulfilling the EU’s climate protection standards in agriculture cost German farmers about 310 million euros every year, the German Farmers’ Association (DBV) says in a press release. Total costs for complying with “the high national and European” ...
The EU Commission plans to ask EU member states to grant it the mandate to negotiate the legal operating conditions of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project with Russia, reports Daniel Brössler for Süddeutsche Zeitung. According to a draft, seen by ...
02 Nov 2016, 00:00 German power consumers will have to shoulder grid fee rebates for energy-intensive industry in excess of 1 billion euros next year, sparking renewed calls for reform of the system to pay for keeping the grid stable as renewable power ...
Russian natural gas supplier Gazprom’s plan to expand existing direct pipelines to Germany, a project known as Nord Stream 2, is facing international, regional and local opposition, while the German government continues to support it, report Weixin Zha ...
Looking at the recent constitutional court ruling on Germany’s nuclear exit, the decision by federal economy minister Sigmar Gabriel to pay lignite power plant operators for mothballing their facilities might have been exaggerated, says Klaus Töpfer, ...
Germany’s fracking law, which takes effect today, is a setback for climate protection, argues Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND) climate expert Ann-Kathrin Schneider in a guest commentary for Frankfurter Rundschau. “To limit global warming to a maximum ...
Using power storages and other technologies to relieve the electricity grid can significantly lower the cost of the energy transition and avoid grid expansion, writes German Energy Agency (dena) in a new study. “We need a bridge between the market and the ...
Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have started operation of the “world’s largest artificial sun,” dubbed “Synlight,” at the Jülich Research Centre near Cologne, the DLR says in a press release. Synlight will be used for researching ...
All the talk about the usability and range of electric cars omits one aspect that is crucial in Germany: the widespread absence of speed limits, Marcus Rohwetter writes in an op-ed for weekly newspaper Die Zeit. “Whoever wants to help e-cars to have a ...
Resistance against wind energy is growing in Germany because the country already has 26,600 turbines- many of which need to be switched off when it is windy because of grid overload, writes Franz Hubik in a commentary for business daily Handelsblatt. The ...
Parts of Germany’s electricity transmission highway dubbed Suedostlink, running from the windy north to industrial centres in the south, could be constructed above the ground- contrary to earlier planning, Marko Jeschor writes in Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. ...
Electric drives for commercial vehicles in city traffic will become profitable in a few years, said Wolfgang Bernhard, member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, according to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). “In 2020, cell prices and the ...
Negotiations on climate policy in the framework of a possible coalition between the conservative CDU/CSU, the economic liberal Free Democrats (FDP), and the Green Party will be difficult, writes Joachim Wille in an opinion piece in Frankfurter Rundschau. ...
The automotive industry is headed towards a seminal transition to “emission-free and also autonomously driving” vehicles, writes Baden-Württemberg’s Green state premier Winfried Kretschmann together with his transport minister Winfried Hermann in an ...
Swiss consultancy Prognos has published a detailed and highly sceptical assessment of the coalition agreement between the conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the Social Democrats (SPD), including analyses of the effects on climate, energy, transport and ...
Germany’s Green Party has rejected an offer tabled by its aspiring coalition partners to reduce the country’s coal power capacity by up to 5 gigawatt (GW), news agency Reuters reports. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the pro ...
Operators of pumped hydro power plants warn a planned law will increase operating costs to the point where the stations will have to be closed, reports Andreas Mihm in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The government cabinet will vote on Wednesday to ...
Inner-city driving bans for diesel cars threaten the economy, consumer interests and even the environment, writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) in a long, front-page article. Diesel cars emit up to 20 percent less CO₂ than petrol cars ...
Power generation from renewables increased in all of Germany’s federal states in 2015, according to an analysis by Renewable Energies Agency (AEE). Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania produced more power from renewables than the total ...
Municipal utilities say Germany’s four transmission grid operators (TSO) are establishing a new “energy oligopoly”, because of their request to construct and also operate “network stability” gas power plants in southern Germany, writes Frank-Thomas Wenzel ...
Renewable energy offers the potential of energy independence and security in times of rising geopolitical tensions like the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine, according to a story by Anmar Frangoul for CNBC. "The idea is for the Germans to say ...
The German buyer’s premium for electric cars agreed in spring has flopped- but the government still believes it’s too early to judge the scheme, writes Thorsten Knuf in Frankfurter Rundschau. Economy state secretary Matthias Machnig wrote in a reply to a ...
The German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) is demanding a complete coal phase-out in Germany within the next two decades. The expert panel of seven university professors has published a statement saying that the upcoming legislative period will ...
The cooperation between German logistics company Deutsche Post DHL and US carmaker Ford on an electric delivery vehicle can be described as an "inverted world", writes Helmut Bünder in an opinion piece in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Deutsche ...
Established energy companies like E.ON and RWE could face a severe loss of power because of the digitalisation of Germany’s energy transition, while new contenders profit, write Jürgen Flauger and Franz Hubik in Handelsblatt. In a long article, Flauger ...
The higher crude oil price resulting from OPEC’s agreement to reduce its output could benefit Germany’s energy transition, Claudia Kemfert writes in a commentary for the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). “A higher oil price facilitates the ...
The digitalisation of the energy sector has only just begun and is already having massive repercussions for utilities, writes Gerard Reid, founder of consultancy Alexa Capital, in a column on bizz-energy.com. “In the digital energy revolution, humans take ...
Renewable energy sources produced about 34 percent of Germany’s net power generation for public electricity supply in 2016, according to first projections by solar energy research institute Fraunhofer ISE. “The share of renewables therefore remained ...
The language used by German car manufacturer Audi and its parent company Volkswagen to handle its emissions fraud scandal speaks volumes about how their managers still underestimate the crisis, Carsten Knop writes in a commentary for Frankfurter ...
The Federal Association for Brown Coal (DEBRIV) says a legal opinion stating that a coal exit would be constitutional is superficial and draws the wrong conclusions. Law firm BeckerBüttnerHeld (BBH) and think tank Agora Energiewende* said on Monday that ...
Digitalisation is the “key driver” of a successful energy transition as it is needed to manage a decentral power supply, Heiko von Tschischwitz, founder of renewable power provider LichtBlick, told Handelsblatt. The times of “simple supply” were over and ...
Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks has demanded Chancellor Angela Merkel put down her foot in the dispute over the Climate Action Plan 2050. According to news agency dpa, Hendricks told the Funke Mediengruppe she had discussed her proposals with ...
The mining and manufacturing industry in Germany contributed 11.2 percent of the country’s gross power production in 2016, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) has said in a press release. With a total of 54 terawatt hours, the share was 0.8 ...
Dieselgate is not over yet for carmaker Volkswagen despite several agreements and progress made in Germany and worldwide over the past couple of days, write Carsten Germis and Roland Lindner in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “The largest remaining factor ...
RWE’s green split-off innogy is working on a system that could make payments between users of e-cars and private providers of charging stations simpler and more secure, writes Manuel Heckel in Handelsblatt. The mode of payment based on the technology ...
Poverty is only one of many explanations as to why around 350,000 German households have their electricity cut off every year because they did not pay their bills, reports Andreas Mihm in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. An as-yet unpublished study for the ...
German manufacturing companies have invested a record 7.9 billion euros in 2014 in environment and climate protection measures to reduce, avoid or clean up emissions and save resources, Germany’s statistics agency Destatis writes in a press release on the ...
EU Commission plans for a binding efficiency energy saving target of 30 percent by 2030 do not make sense, writes Hendrik Kafsack in a commentary for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “The EU has the clear target to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2030. ...
A new draft US Senate bill that is meant to tighten economic sanctions on Russia could threaten Europe’s energy supply security, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern have said in a joint press release. “The threat ...
Essen district court has rejected a lawsuit brought by Peruvian farmer Saúl Lliuya’s against German utility RWE, for contributing to environmental damage in his hometown of Huarez, news agency Reuters reports. Lliuya demanded 17,000 euros in compensation ...
German utility RWE’s green subsidiary innogy had a cautious stock market debut with shares “hovering around the issue price,” writes news agency Reuters. On the first day, shares dropped below the issue price of 36 euros at times, but reached that level ...
An association of large companies including Deutsche Bahn, Telekom and Aida Cruises is calling for a timely start to the “dialogue about a coal consensus”, writes Silke Kersting in Handelsblatt. In a declaration by the Foundation 2° – seen by Handelsblatt ...
G20 president Germany will press the Group to reaffirm its commitment to fighting climate change when finance ministers meet next month for the first time since the election of Donald Trump, G20 sources said, report Noah Barkin and Jan Strupczewski for ...
German chancellor Angela Merkel has defended diesel cars as environmentally friendly, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. “Diesel cars are as good for climate protection today as they were yesterday and the day before yesterday,” Merkel said ...
BMW, Daimler, Ford, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche have formed a joint venture to deploy a charging network for e-vehicles covering European travel routes. “The goal is to enable long-distance travel through open-network charging stations along highways and ...
German electric carmakers have shied away from producing their own battery cells because of competition from Asia, report Franz Hubik, Lukas Bay and Stephan Scheuer for Handelsblatt Global Edition. China plans to take a leading role in the e-car battery ...
The German port city of Hamburg has concluded the trial phase of a massive subterranean aquifer heat storage system, which is supposed to replace a coal plant and which can provide heat to 8,000 households in winter, Julia Witte writes in Die Welt. ...
The state parliament of Berlin will decide on an act today that would enshrine into law the year 2030 as the city’s coal exit date- but new emissions limits in 2018 could lead to an earlier phase-out, writes Claudius Prösser in tageszeitung (taz). By the ...
At 7.77 terawatt hours (TWh) in the first half of 2017, North Sea offshore wind power transferred by system operator (TSO) TenneT exceeded that of the same period last year (5.18 TWh) by 50 percent, TenneT said in a press release. “The flow of energy from ...
Germany needs to significantly step up its climate policies to reach the government target of reducing CO 2 emissions by 55 percent by 2030, according to energy state secretary Rainer Baake. At an event in Munich, Baake singled out the transport sector ...
Costs such as the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) surcharge and power grid fees make electricity artificially expensive and keep companies from ramping up production at times of low wholesale power prices, Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) president Eric ...
Germany needs to be bolder with its Climate Action Plan 2050 to set a benchmark for other countries, former Polish environment minister Maciej Nowicki writes in a guest commentary for Zeit Online. “If the latest known draft is not fundamentally revised, ...
Germany’s largest oil and gas producer Wintershall is sticking to plans to build the Russian-German gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 despite possible US sanctions, reports Bernd Freytag in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “Even in times that are not easy, ...
Germany on average consumed 121 million litres of diesel fuel every day in 2016, resulting in a record share of diesel in total fuel consumption of 65 percent, reports Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Diesel sales increased 30 percent from ...
The German Energiewende was expensive and unfair because the project was “poorly crafted”, according to an opinion piece by Richard Fuchs for Deutsche Welle. “The cheaper wind and solar power become, the more private electricity customers pay for power. ...
German utility E.ON ’s fossil-fuel subsidiary Uniper plans layoffs and wage cuts due to challenges caused by the country’s transition to low-carbon energy generation, Rheinische Post reports. During collective negotiations with trade unions Verdi and IG ...
Power to hydrogen as a way to store excess electricity is currently too expensive, many modern gas-consuming devices could only deal with a small share of hydrogen in their fuel, and hydrogen has significantly less energy content per cubic metre than, for ...
Employees in Germany’s mighty car industry are increasingly worried the pending shift to e-cars will lead to massive job losses, report Karl-Heinz Büschemann and Thomas Fromm in Süddeutsche Zeitung. “We will get an enormous problem,” said Hartmut Geisel, ...
It is surprising that climate protection is not a big election campaign topic in Germany, writes Andreas Mihm in an opinion piece for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The government will not be able to avoid “harsh interventions with expensive ...
Completing the energy transition and reaching Germany’s climate targets is possible only with a corresponding transport transition (Verkehrswende), according to a policy paper by new think tank Agora Verkehrswende.* The organisation presents “Twelve ...
Contrary to expert opinion, Germany’s economy minister Sigmar Gabriel wants to retrieve nuclear waste from the former salt mine Asse II, located in the minister’s constituency of Wolfenbüttel, Daniel Wetzel writes in Die Welt. An expert commission found ...
Despite decreasing consumption of coal, Germany’s energy related year-on-year CO₂ emissions rose by 0.9 percent in 2016 due to an increased consumption of natural gas and mineral oil, according to first estimates by energy market research group AG ...
The Economic Council of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU says the party should give serious consideration to a minority government, in order to avoid a new grand coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD). In a statement, the economic ...
A coal phase-out for Germany is implied in the federal government’s Climate Action Plan 2050, environment minister Barbara Hendricks told Susanne Götze and Susanne Schwarz in an interview for klimaretter.info. “If you read the Climate Action Plan ...
Europe’s nuclear power organisation Euratom needs to be drastically reformed and become more democratic and transparent, Sylvia Kotting-Uhl, nuclear energy expert of the German Green Party’s parliamentary group, writes in a guest commentary for ...
Falling emissions from the energy sector mean Germany’s overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions fell slightly in 2015, compared to 2014, according to revised data published by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA). 901.9 million tonnes CO₂ equivalents were ...
The average German household (consumption of 3,500 kilowatt hours/year) will have to pay 23 euros more (10 percent) in 2017 for grid fees with their electricity bill, according to an analysis by renewable energy provider LichtBlick. “The grid fees for ...
The lack of flexibility in running brown coal and nuclear power stations are the cause of Germany’s high power export surplus, says consultancy Energy Research Architecture in a study commissioned by the Green group in the German Bundestag. The more ...
The German research centre for biomass (Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum, DBFZ) has developed an interactive online atlas to visualise national and regional potentials for biomass in the country. Researchers, investors and interested laypeople can use ...
The nuclear waste deal is positive because it was in the interest of all citizens that Germany’s large utilities did well in the long term, writes Dieter Keller in an opinion piece for Südwest Presse. Bankrupt energy suppliers would result in even higher ...
British plans to ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040 show that the combustion engine “is dying” and the national German diesel summit next week “already seems like a sad alumni reunion”, writes Greenpeace transport representative Tobias ...
Germany takes an expensive “special path” in rolling out smart meters as regulated by the European Commission, according to an analysis by consultancy Baringa Partners, writes Franz Hubik in Handelsblatt. Germany had decided to roll out smart meters step ...
The debate about an end to Germany's core renewable energy support within the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) continues, according to Andreas Mihm in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The party's federal expert committee on finances, economy and ...
US president elect Donald Trump’s negative comments on wind power in a recent interview with the New York Times present a concern for both the domestic and international wind sector, writes Franz Hubik in Handelsblatt. “Trump made clear that climate ...
Job security should be valued higher than environmental protection, according to a motion for the federal party conference of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) in December, writes Thomas Vitzthum in Die Welt. The motion calls for an impact assessment ...
The Green Party is slumping in national polls as security and migration overshadow the party’s core topics of the environment and climate, writes Silke Kersting in Handelsblatt. “Yet, the conditions for the party to again play a bigger part on a national ...
The Green Party has criticised the Bavarian environment ministry for giving the go-ahead to tear down a nuclear power plant. The Isar I plant is to be demolished despite around 300 tonnes of radioactive material which cannot be removed for storage until ...
Germany’s next government will have to ramp up efforts to advance the country’s transition to renewable energy sources in order to replace nuclear power and enable gradual decarbonisation, the Energy Watch Group think tank says. The “former global leader” ...
German industrial services provider Bilfinger intensifies its nuclear power business regardless of the country’s nuclear phase-out, reports Michael Gassmann in Die Welt. The company has been awarded waste treatment orders in the UK and Sweden worth a ...
Germany is following a “proactive strategy in developing comprehensive environmental policies” but should make greater efforts to improve air quality for the sake of its citizens’ health and quality of life, the European Commission said in a country ...
Europe’s largest carmaker VW will build its first factory for battery production in Germany, fulfilling a key employee demand, reports newswire dpa. VW CEO Matthias Müller confirmed the plans but did not want to say how many people will work in the new ...
Social Democratic economy minister Sigmar Gabriel has lost his credibility regarding climate and environment policy with his last-minute decision to block an agreement on Germany’s Climate Action Plan 2050 out of consideration for unions and industry, ...
The Integrated Environment Programme 2030 environment minister Barbara Hendricks published yesterday reads in part like her political legacy and in part like a self-confident settling of accounts with some of her cabinet colleagues, writes Thorsten Knuf ...
With the reform of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG), “Germany’s once vaunted renewable energy strategy looks to be running out of steam,” writes Nnamdi Anyadike for the global energy industry website power-technology.com. "Despite its success in ...
On 14 October, German grid operators will announce the renewables surcharge (EEG-Umlage) for 2017. For this occasion, the Institute for Applied Ecology (Öko-Institut) has put together a paper that discusses important legal changes to the EEG made over the ...
Exempting citizens’ energy projects from subsidy auctions for green power fed into the grid – laid out in the Renewable Energy Act reform – could ensure the continued presence of these small decentralised companies and thus the population’s support for ...
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel likes to think of herself as a politician who “thinks things through to the end” – but the constitutional court’s judgement on the hasty 2011 nuclear exit suggests otherwise, writes Thorsten Knuf in a commentary for ...
German automotive component supplier Bosch will decide on whether to start its own battery cell production around the end of 2017 or beginning of 2018, Bosch’s chairman of the board of management Volkmar Denner told the Welt am Sonntag in an interview. ...
General diesel driving bans are not a good solution in the emissions debate, as they would basically expropriate German car owners, chairman of Industrial Union of Metalworkers (IG-Metall) Jörg Hofmann told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in an ...
The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) wants to “make every effort” to complete three direct current high-voltage power lines connecting Germany’s windy north with the power-hungry south by 2025, the agency says in its 2016 fourth quarter grid development ...
The federal state of Saxony intends to forge a coalition of coal-producing German states against a possible nation-wide coal exit, the Leipziger Volkszeitung reports. Saxony’s Christian-democrat state premier Stanislaw Tillich called the aim to tackle ...
High-ranking members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) want to prevent a commission to plan a coal phase-out in Germany proposed in the environment ministry’s Climate Action Plan 2050, reports Reuters. Michael Fuchs and ...
Even if US sanctions lead to a cancellation of the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and the Baltic LNG liquefied natural gas terminal projects, Europe’s import capacities are sufficient to meet demand, writes Aurora Energy Research in a brief. ...
Germany is still likely to miss key Energiewende goals, including its 2020 greenhouse gas reduction target, even as household power prices continue to rise, according to McKinsey’s bi-annual Energiewende-Index report. At 30.8 cents per kilowatt hour (ct ...
The transport minister of Austria wants to see new registration of conventional cars phased-out by 2030, writes Handelsblatt. “It is my goal that in 2030, only emissions-free cars will be registered in Austria,” Austrian transport minister Jörg ...
German utility RWE’s green subsidiary innogy reported a 7 percent fall in EBITDA in the first nine months of 2016 compared to the same period last year. The decline in profits comes one month after the company’s stock market debut in October. “The ...
There will be no nationwide grid fee alignment in Germany according to a proposal by the economy ministry approved by the government cabinet, contrary to earlier press reports. However, the proposal for a grid fee reform will gradually abolish payments ...
Tenants and flat owners in apartment buildings in Germany face high legal hurdles if they want to retrofit on-property parking areas with an e-car charging station, Berrit Gräber writes in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Even those who agree to pay for the ...
The grand government coalition in Germany failed to recognise that the economy was “the central actor of the new climate movement,” writes German investor Jochen Wermuth in a guest article for German weekly Die Zeit. He calls for more divestment, a hold ...
The vigorous debate within the German government about the content of its Climate Action Plan 2050 is in stark contrast to the relative half-heartedness of international climate negotiations, writes Andreas Mihm in an opinion piece for the Frankfurter ...
The federal environment ministry’s statement that software updates are insufficient to improve air quality in German cities makes the August ‘ diesel summit ’ a failure, writes Michael Bauchmüller in an opinion piece in Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Action plans ...
The fact that a major figure from Germany's car industry, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche, was invited to the Green Party convention shows that the Greens are a force to be reckoned with, writes Holger Möhle in a commentary in the General-Anzeiger. The ...
A report by Polish think tank Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich (Centre for Eastern Studies) examines the challenges Germany faces regarding the country’s dependence on natural gas. “Natural gas plays a key role in the German economy, […] is the most important ...
The German government partially or fully waived the country’s renewable energy levy for 717 companies last year because of a special equalisation scheme to mitigate competitive disadvantages for energy intensive industries, Petra Hannen writes in PV ...
E-mobility start-ups in the automobile sector will not pose a threat to established carmakers, because industrial serial production is too expensive and complex, writes Markus Fasse in an opinion piece for Handelsblatt. “Up until now, the million-fold ...
Swedish power company Vattenfall reported a fourth-quarter and full-year net loss on the back of low electricity prices and write-downs, press agency dpa reports. For the full year 2016, Vattenfall said its net loss was 2.7 billion euros, including the ...
23 May 2017, 00:00 German Chancellor Angela Merkel promised to try and convince “doubters” of the urgent need to mitigate climate change. But environmental organisations said her credibility as “Climate Chancellor” was severely damaged because Germany had ...
The once illusory concept of a carbon-neutral combustion engine could soon become a reality, German car industry supplier Bosch says in a press release. With synthetic fuels- so-called “eFuels”- CO 2 could become a valuable resource for making petrol, ...
The nuclear waste pact the federal cabinet approved yesterday might be good news for the plant operators, but it sent out the “fatal signal” that Germany’s big four utilities were too large to fail, writes Frank-Thomas Wenzel in an opinion piece in ...
Germany will need the well-directed use of power-based synthetic fuels in connection with a phase-out of oil and natural gas to reach its long-term climate targets, the think tanks Agora Energiewende and Agora Verkehrswende* write in a joint analysis. ...
German Karlsruhe Institute of Technology's (KIT) spin-off company INERATEC has developed a compact power-to-liquid plant’s chemical reactor that converts hydrogen produced from solar power together with carbon dioxide into liquid fuels, writes KIT in ...
To counter ambitious plans from rivals VW and Daimler unveiled at the Paris Car Show last week, BMW is stepping up its electric mobility plans, reports Elisabeth Behrmann for Bloomberg. BMW will offer the first battery-powered model of its Mini brand from ...
A new study by energy consultancy Brainpool, commissioned by Greenpeace, outlines a detailed plan for exiting coal in Germany, so the country can reach its emissions-cutting goals. The study details when which coal-powered plants should be shut off ...
Due to the decommissioning and dismantling of its nuclear power plants, German utility E.ON plans to cut about half of all jobs at its subsidiary PreussenElektra, news agency dpa reports in an article carried by website focus.de. At least 1,000 jobs will ...
German carmakers' plan to set up a nationwide fast charging network for electric cars is “no reason to cheer”, Peter Fahrenholz writes in a commentary for Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Investing in transportation infrastructure is a public duty,” Fahrenholz ...
Germany can take coal plants with a combined capacity of seven gigawatts off grid- and might even improve the security of the power supply by doing so, according to an unofficial document by Germany’s economy & energy ministry (BMWi) and the Federal ...
German national railway company Deutsche Bahn will have to indirectly contribute around 350 million euros to the state-administered fund to finance interim and final storage of nuclear waste in 2017, report Jürgen Flauger and Dieter Flockenbrock for ...
Despite the picture portrayed by high approval ratings in surveys, public acceptance of the German Energiewende has fallen due to electricity costs, writes Daniel Wetzel in Die Welt. Germans have declared their support for the switch to renewables, but ...
Germany’s industry is among the most efficient in the world and can hardly improve its energy intensity record by simply abiding by new regulations, a study by the industry-sponsored research institute IW Köln says. Andreas Mihm writes in the Frankfurter ...
It is embarrassing that the former eco-champion Germany has taken a break in the global competition for the fastest and best energy transition, writes Joachim Wille in a commentary for klimaretter.info. “The German government, which fought so ardently and ...
Progress in modernising Germany’s buildings to save energy is slow partly because of a confusing array of available support, according to a study by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW). “At present, the country boasts 3,350 support schemes to ...
Utilities and the German government continue to argue about the storage of nuclear waste, five months after a government-appointed commission proposed that the country’s four nuclear power station operators should pay more than 20 billion euros into a ...
German conventional energy utility RWE’s CEO Rolf Martin Schmitz says his company plans to buy new power stations as he expects electricity to become scarcer and prices to rise over the coming years, reports Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). RWE has a ...
The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) introduced a new website that aggregates power market data from different transmission grid operators almost in real time and provides them in a user-friendly way, the agency said in a press release. Data includes power ...
German Sonnen will supply the largest home power storage project in the Unites States with solar PV and battery systems, reports Christian Roselund for pv magazine. Each of the 2,900 homes in a new residential area in Prescott Valley, Arizona will receive ...
A standstill can still be considered a success during Donald Trump’s time as US president, write Malte Kreutzfeld and Ingo Arzt in an article for tageszeitung (taz). The G20, which isolated Trump on climate, did not bring progress to global climate ...
Germany will likely phase out power production from coal within the next 30 years, according to state secretary Rainer Baake. “When I look at the stakeholders’ positions, it seems to suggest that the last [coal] power station will likely go offline ...
German utility E.ON and Danish e-mobility provider CLEVER have agreed to jointly build a network of ultra-fast e-car charging stations along major European motorways, according to an E.ON press release. “The joint ambition of the partners is to now ...
A regulation by the Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE) keeps German tenants from using power from small personal solar panels on their balconies for self-consumption, while other countries allow the use, writes ...
Porsche may give up diesel engines by the end of the decade, Reuters reports. Porsche CEO Oliver Blume said “we have not made a decision on it,” adding the company was “of course” looking into this issue following the emissions cheating scandal that ...
Focusing on e-mobility is the cheapest long-term way for Germany to achieve decarbonised transportation, the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) writes in a press release. A study commissioned by the UBA and carried out by the Öko-Institut found that a ...
Despite a somewhat successful shift to more renewable sources in the power sector, Germany’s energy transition is making little to zero progress in the transportation and heating sectors, Joachim Wille writes for Frankfurter Rundschau. “The gradual ...
German regions need to intensify their cooperation when it comes to implementing the Energiewende, Roland Jäkel, head of the trade association Lower Silesia in Saxony, said in an interview with Sächsische Zeitung. “Politicians won’t create new jobs in ...
German cities may be able to ban or limit cars from driving into their centres, should a draft regulation compiled by the environment ministry (BMUB) at the urging of the federal states enter into effect, Spiegel Online reported Saturday. Under the ...
The housing industry has criticised the federal government’s Climate Action Plan 2050, because of last-minute changes at the expense of the sector, writes Henrike Roßbach for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). After economy minister Sigmar Gabriel ...
The decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear power plants is likely to be much more expensive than previously thought, Jan Schmitt writes on tagesschau.de, the website of German public broadcaster ARD's flagship news show. For instance, the price ...
Ahead of the general elections on 24 September, German voters increasingly favour a possible government coalition of conservatives (CDU/CSU) and the economically liberal FDP, while the popularity of the current alternative of a grand coalition (CDU/CSU ...
The buyer’s premium for alternative car engines introduced by the German government last May has largely failed its objective of boosting the sale of e-cars, writes Dana Heide in Handelsblatt. Economy minister Sigmar Gabriel expected the one-billion-euro ...
Employees of German utility Uniper have agreed on an austerity deal and forgo fringe benefits of five percent of their standard wages in order to avoid enforced redundancies until 2022, Rheinische Post reports. The conventional energy subsidiary of German ...
Carmaker BMW is “taking a deep breath” to prepare for the breakthrough of electric mobility, writes Markus Fasse in Handelsblatt. The company will have to work hard to ensure the 3 billion euros it so far has invested in e-cars don’t end up as sunk costs, ...
German chancellor Angela Merkel said during a visit to Poland in February that she hoped the neighbouring country would “ cooperate in terms of climate protection ”, Ulrich Krökel writes in Rheinische Post. But neither Poland’s current national ...
Grid fees will be aligned across Germany despite economy minister Sigmar Gabriel’s recent backtracking on such plans, Reuters reports citing government sources. Responding to pressure from eastern German federal states the government is working on a bill ...
The Chinese government’s announcement to introduce a quota for e-cars from as early as 2018 could mean a great deal of strain for German car makers, write Thomas Fromm and Christoph Giesen in Süddeutsche Zeitung. For example, Volkswagen currently sells ...
Last year’s agreement on financing the nuclear clean-up between the German state and nuclear power providers does not seem to have brought permanent peace as utilities refuse to drop the lawsuits against the nuclear fuel tax, write Jürgen Flauger and ...
Climate change is a threat to financial markets not just because of potential natural disasters, but also due to a tightening of climate protection measures, writes Michael Bauchmüller in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, citing a report prepared for the German ...
The Green election programme would demand a lot of possible coalition partners after the elections, such as the coal exit and the phase-out of the combustion engine, said Schleswig-Holstein state energy minister Robert Habeck in an interview with daily ...
The EU should welcome the controversial gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, despite deteriorating relations with Russia, writes Karel Beckman in an in-depth article for Energy Post. “For Europe, there seems no reason to be afraid of Nord Stream 2,” writes Beckman ...
Lower CO 2-emissions of cars can be achieved even without relying on e-cars “to beef up the quota”, according to a new study by the non-profit organisation International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), Max Hägler writes in Süddeutsche Zeitung. The ...
The regional government’s decision to ban older diesel cars from Stuttgart city centre on days with bad air from next year is “ill-advised”, “disastrous” economic policy, and its environmental benefits “questionable,” according to Franz Fehrenbach, ...
News registrations of hybrids and e-cars rose 104 and 132 percent respectively in July 2017, compared to the same month last year, writes the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) in a press release. This amounted to about 3 percent of all new passenger ...
More than two-thirds of Germans are most worried about climate change ahead of the general elections in September, according to a representative survey by Kantar Emnid commissioned by Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ). The “surprising result” showed ...
German climate, transport and agricultural policy under Chancellor Angela Merkel has “lacked farsightedness” and needs rerouting by the next government, German environmental NGOs WWF, NABU, Greenpeace and DNR say in a joint press release. “Environmental ...
Forest clearance and other changes to the landscape are responsible for more CO2-emissions than previously thought, researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have found. “Forests, grasslands and fields contribute considerably to climate ...
The German parliament's finance committee has decided to extend motor vehicle tax exemptions for e-cars for five years in order to push sales of the technology, reports Süddeutsche Zeitung. The committee also agreed that e-car drivers can charge ...
Peter Terium, CEO of German renewable energies company innogy, started a pro-EU initiative, ‘We4Europe’, and calls for unified energy policy in an interview with Handelsblatt. “Europe is the foundation on which we build our business” and it was in innogy ...
Experts of the governing Social Democrats (SPD) call for a rapid expansion of railway traffic in Germany, writes Markus Balser in Süddeutsche Zeitung. “We want to achieve a doubling of capacities of the railway network by 2030”, Balser quotes an SPD ...
Diesel car registrations in Germany are in decline: year-on-year registration figures in August fell by 13.8 percent, bringing the share of vehicles with diesel engines on German roads to 37.7 percent, the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has said ...
German car suppliers which are largely still “firmly rooted in traditional car manufacturing” must quickly adapt to the electrification of transport and be willing to cooperate with competitors, or they will “fall by the wayside”, according to an analysis ...
The financial sector must quickly incorporate risks and opportunities arising from the global move to a low-carbon economy into their strategies, write German and French central bankers Andreas Dombret and Anne Le Lorier in a guest article for ...
The German government will support several research projects on sustainable city development with 100 million euros over the coming five years, the federal economy and research ministries say in a press release. “Six flagship projects are to show how ...
26 Aug 2016, 00:00 In August, Germany held the fifth tender in its new auction pilot scheme for payments to large-scale solar projects. While officials overseeing the programme continue to praise its results and declining price levels, critics warn that ...
The shipping industry is “approaching an energy transition”, writes Uwe Lauber for Handelsblatt Global, although there is still no “Green Deal” for market participants and no policy in place following the Paris climate summit. The sector “is preparing for ...
States like Lower Saxony are pushing for more wind power development even though the grid connections to transport the green power are lacking, Der Spiegel writes. There are no incentives for the state government to accelerate the construction of new ...
Climate protection and the energy transition are among the losers of the German election campaign, writes Ralf Köpke in sector magazine Energie & Management. The current grand coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU and the Social ...
The court case in car industry hub Stuttgart on diesel engines’ nitrogen oxide emissions pits the Baden-Wuerttemberg state’s Greens-led transport ministry against the NGO Environmental Action Germany (DUH). This is a case of “Green versus Green”, writes ...
Marc Etzold, Angela Hennersdorf, Andreas Macho and Cordula Tutt examine the political forces in Germany that favour US President Donald Trump’s attitude toward the Paris Agreement and find fault with Germany’s Energiewende – some openly, some less so, in ...
The German gas industry believes gas is being “discriminated against” in Energiewende policies. In heating, renewable gas was being treated as a fossil fuel, and CO 2-savings by gas-powered cars were not counted as decarbonisation measures, said Timm ...
The Energiewende is a mammoth project and includes a number of risks. News agency dpa, in an article carried by Wirtschaftswoche, runs a “fact check” of common claims regarding the energy transition, namely 1) the energy transition increases power costs, ...
Germany’s major parties say that they are committed to the Paris Climate Agreement, but climate protection measures specified in the election programmes of CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP and the Green Party are not enough to reach the goal of limiting global warming ...
Germany is home to the world’s largest and most diverse reusability system for beverages, which saves natural resources and contributes to environment and climate protection, according to a new consumer campaign by Environmental Action Germany (DUH) and ...
The German Green Party is determined to make climate protection and “ecologic modernisation” a central issue of their election campaign. “Climate and environment policy also are a question of fairness,” the Greens stated in a preliminary draft of the ...
District cooling offers property owners a more climate-friendly and potentially cheaper way to cool their buildings on hot summer days, writes Ralph Diermann in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Water running through buildings’ walls is centrally cooled down to ...
Swiss voters have rejected their country’s speedy abolition of nuclear power production, the news agency Reuters reports. In a referendum held on Sunday, almost 55 percent of voters opposed plans to shut down Switzerland’s five nuclear power plants. The ...
For China, India, Russia and the USA, climate protection plays a minor role among reasons to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to a study by conservative foundation Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS). Fighting poverty, ensuring economic ...
The grid reform proposal threatens to undermine the economics of decentralised power stations, according to utility association BDEW. “The government risks that controllable and flexible decentralised power generators are pushed out of the market,” said ...
12 Oct 2016
The Federal Network Agency has announced the first mutually opened auction for ground-mounted photovoltaic installations in cooperation with Denmark. Photovoltaic installations in Denmark can participate in a German auction alongside photovoltaic ...
Car component supplier Bosch has agreed on a settlement to pay 328 million dollars to claimants in the US for its role in Volkswagen’s emissions scandal, Max Hägler writes in Süddeutsche Zeitung. “But they don’t talk about their role,” Hägler writes. He ...
This year’s G20 summit was not a major step forward in solving the climate problem, yet it did not result in a major clash with US President Donald Trump either, Brigitte Knopf writes in the T20 blog, an initiative led by the German Development Institute ...
The hidden costs of electricity generated with coal, nuclear power, and gas mean consumers would have to pay a “conventional energy surcharge” of up to 10.8 cents per kilowatt-hour next year, according to a study by Green Budget Germany (FÖS) commissioned ...
German sales of petroleum products have gone up 3.5 percent to 55.8 million tonnes in the first half of 2017, the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (Bafa) has said in a press release. Compared to the same period last year, German diesel sales ...
The German government plans to introduce new tax incentives for building insulation, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The newspaper has learned that Chancellor Angela Merkel and Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks propose subsidies, and the ...
German economy minister Brigitte Zypries “strongly trusts” that US President Donald Trump will prevent sanctions against German companies that are invested in the construction or operation of pipelines from Russia, the minister wrote in a guest commentary ...
Energy prices for German consumers dropped by 0.9 percent in August, following a decrease of 1.2 percent in July. While prices for petrol and heating oil went down, electricity prices remained stable, according to the European Climate Foundation’s (ECF) ...
Protestors have called on the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state premier to call an immediate halt to the construction of wind turbines in the state, Welt reports. They argue that the construction of wind farms unfairly burdens state citizens and ...
Long-term feed-in tariffs set by the government for wind power in Germany lead to comparably high electricity prices, which could turn out to be a regional handicap in light of fast-falling wind power prices in Europe, writes Klaus Stratmann in the ...
The Left Party in the state of Brandenburg has joined its government coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), in abandoning the ambitious climate targets which they had agreed on in 2014, dealing a new blow to Germany’s climate policy, report ...
G20 states’ annual investments in renewable energies must almost double compared to 2015 levels to carry out measures needed to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, according to the Allianz Climate and Energy Monitor 2017 by Allianz Climate ...
The massive increase in grid fees announced by TenneT and other operators signals a new chapter in Germany’s Energiewende, writes Daniel Wetzel in Die Welt. “A new phase begins whereby capacity growth no longer takes centre stage, but the system ...
After 15 years of construction, the new power transmission line from eastern Germany to Bavaria in the south “closes one of the most severe bottlenecks in the European power grid,” Daniel Wetzel writes in Die Welt. The 200-kilometre-long line connecting ...
Fifty percent of Germans would not consider buying an electric car in the coming years, according to a representative survey by Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach, commissioned by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). Only 30 percent of respondents said ...
German energy companies E.ON, RWE and EnBW are expecting billions of euros in tax refunds after the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday that a nuclear fuel tax law was unconstitutional. Read the E.ON press release in English here. Read ...
More than a year after the start of the Dieselgate scandal, VW has said it will no longer exploit all legal possibilities to lower the official emission data of cars, report Klaus Ott and Katja Riedel in Süddeutsche Zeitung. The company said it had ...
With wind and solar power revolutionising energy systems in many countries, the world is currently witnessing a development that would have been written off as “wishful thinking by idealistic fools” just a few years ago, Thorsten Knuf writes in ...
Leading carmakers' plans to set up a European e-vehicle fast-charging network show the amount of pressure on the car industry, Peter Fahrenholz says in an opinion piece for Süddeutsche Zeitung. “It’s not only spectacular on a technological level. ...
A determined transition to carbon-free energy production in Germany is crucial for the Paris Agreement to become a success, according to the environmental NGO Germanwatch. Signatories would have to make sure that the agreement is swiftly implemented- with ...
A global Energiewende is already underway, but world leaders should give it a further push at the upcoming G20 meeting in China, according to a WWF report. “As the current level of coal in the mix remains a problem to be solved for Germany, the country ...
The government cabinet has approved a law proposal to enable highly automated driving on German roads. “We are enabling drivers to take their hands off the wheel during highly automated driving, to surf the internet or check e-mails, for example,” said ...
In an effort to expand its existing fleet of electric delivery vans, Deutsche Post DHL Group has teamed up with US carmaker Ford and unveiled a jointly manufactured, larger version of the e-van, the "StreetScooter WORK XL". “With this commitment ...
Drivers of cars powered by natural gas and operators of gas refilling stations should be careful after the recent explosion of a VW vehicle of this type, writes Christian Siedenbiedel in a commentary for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. It is too early to ...
According to grid operators, German power consumers will have to shoulder grid fee rebates for energy-intensive industry in excess of 1 billion euros next year, sparking renewed calls for reform of the system to pay for keeping the grid stable as ...
Robert Habeck, one of the Green Party’s primary candidates for the upcoming federal elections, has demanded a halt to construction of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project in light of Russian airstrikes in Syria, reports Spiegel Online. ...
The NGO Environmental Action Germany (DUH) initiated several additional legal proceedings on emissions limits in German cities, bringing the total number of affected cities to 45, the organisation writes in a press release. “Diesel driving bans in more ...
G20 members commend private commitment to climate risk reporting but do not universally recommend it in the climate and energy action plan, which was annexed to the G20 Hamburg summit leaders’ communiqué, writes Dagmar Dehmer for Tagesspiegel Background. ...
Germany is not the “poster child” it likes to portray itself as, writes Ursula Weidenfeld in an opinion piece in Tagesspiegel. She points to the German government’s Nord Stream 2 policy, years of electricity loop flows through neighbouring countries, and ...
The Dieselgate scandal at VW seems to have triggered a rethinking among German carmakers to place low-emission vehicles higher on their agenda, writes Thorsten Knuf in an opinion piece for the Frankfurter Rundschau. The government instead appears to be ...
The European Commission’s decision to start infringement proceedings against a number of European countries for failing to cooperate in emissions cheating investigations is “long overdue,” writes Jörg Münchenberg in a commentary for Deutschlandfunk. ...
After Germany’s parliamentary elections in September, the new government should create a capacity market and push the integration of transport and heating into the power market, according to Innogy CEO Peter Terium. “With this capacity market, we keep ...
VW’s work council believes the switch to electric mobility will lead to the loss of up to 25,000 jobs within ten years, reports Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. But new jobs will be created in areas such as software development and mobility services, Bernd ...
The German energy system would become more complex, unfair and expensive if the government were to introduce support models for tenant electricity, as costs avoided by tenants would have to be paid by other consumers, writes Andreas Mihm in an opinion ...
The Renewable Energy Surcharge paid by consumers with their energy bills should be extended to fossil energies, according to a recent study by the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) commissioned by the Association of Energy Market Innovators ...
A motion by the Green Party’s executive for the November party conference demands that from 2030, no newly registered cars should be diesel or petrol-fuelled, Andreas Mihm reports in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Such a transport transition would also ...
The German energy transition does not serve as a role model, as the cost for “early renewables” is a heavy burden for consumers while the country was unable to significantly lower emissions and did not cut back on using coal, British economist Dieter Helm ...
German grid operator Amprion has started an early public consultation process on possible routes for a 300 km direct current underground power line to transport electricity “from the wind-rich north to the consumption centres in western and southern ...
Representatives of industry, civil society and science call for an internationally coordinated price system for CO₂ emissions in a guest commentary in Die Zeit. The Federation of German Industries (BDI), environmental NGO Germanwatch and the Mercator ...
The progress of Germany’s energy transition varies immensely throughout the country, a study published by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) suggests. In rural areas and particularly on the coasts, the transition to a clean and ...
Germany is likely to miss its 2020 emissions reduction target by nearly 120 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent- a far greater margin than previously thought, think tank Agora Energiewende* said in a new study. The country should quickly implement an ...
24 Oct 2016, 00:00 Plans for a new climate department in Germany’s transport ministry could signal the issue will receive greater policy attention after years of neglect by the ministry, according to activists. But they also warn a new department alone is ...
Germany and Sweden will build a 300 kilometre-long, 700 megawatt direct current power line connecting storage-rich Scandinavia with wind- and solar-powered continental Europe. “The cable improves the integration of renewable energies in the transmission ...
German carmakers already advertise electric vehicles that can be almost fully charged within minutes, but they keep quiet about the fact the necessary charging stations don't exist yet, writes Lukas Bay in a commentary for Handelsblatt. "But the ...
Criticism of the planned gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 to connect Russia and Germany is mounting, while former chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) continues to support the project as chair of its board of directors, writes Markus Wehner in an in-depth article ...
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau disputed a report by German weekly Der Spiegel which claimed he proposed to strike the references to the Paris Agreement from the upcoming G20 communiqué in a telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “No, ...
