Germany’s Federal Court of Auditors has criticised the government for lacking overview of the costs of the energy transition. The economics ministry “has no overview of the financial consequences of the Energiewende,” says the evaluation for the budget ...
Low prices of Chinese products, the reform of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), as well as levies connected to the Energiewende in Germany, all put a heavy burden on the German steel industry, writes Ulrich Grillo, president of the Federation of ...
The transport ministry’s decision to allow super-long lorries onto German roads this year might save fuel but does not benefit the environment in the long term, writes Richard Rother in a commentary for left-wing daily taz.de. He argues the main advantage ...
German transmission grid operators (TSO) are in a dispute about the distribution of costs for re-dispatch measures to stabilise the German power grid, writes Jürgen Flauger in Handelsblatt. TenneT and 50Hertz, who manage Germany’s windy north, carry out ...
The German Green Party is at risk of becoming the weakest parliamentary group after this week’s elections, although extreme weather patterns in the Caribbean and the dieselgate scandal at home have shifted the political focus to the environmentalist party ...
Nearly seven years after Germany’s first offshore wind farm “alpha ventus” began operating in 2010, the industry is thriving, Stephanie Wehkamp writes in maritime trade journal Schiff und Hafen. There are now 15 fully operational windfarms in the North ...
E.ON is putting together a team of banks and lawyers to support the utility in case of a hostile takeover attempt, according to a report by news agency dpa carried by website manager magazine. A company spokesperson said a “defence mandate” of this kind ...
Modern natural gas heating systems have played a major role in reducing CO₂ emissions, Stefan Kapferer, head of utilities lobby BDEW, says in a press release. Ending support for fossil-fuelled heating is therefore misguided, he argues. “The government ...
Deutschlandfunk’s Theo Geers blames the government, and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble in particular, for the Constitutional Court ruling over the nuclear fuel tax. “Clumsy errors mean champagne corks were flying in the executive boardrooms of E.ON, ...
Several large business associations criticised Barbara Hendricks’ climate plan draft and that its coordination lies primarily with the environment ministry. “Because of its scope in many policy areas, the Climate Protection Plan 2050 must not be ...
New emissions tests for cars still leave room for the “trickery of the manufacturers”, according to expert reports for the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, seen by the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “The biggest defect: the tests on how much CO₂ ...
A reform of the electricity tax along with other measures, such as removing certain industry exemptions, could lead to electricity cost savings of 3.8 billion euros for the retail sector and private consumers, according to a joint position paper by the ...
The introduction of an EU-wide carbon price would help member states avoid 943 million tonnes of CO₂ by 2025 as electricity generation from hard coal and lignite will decrease by 28 percent, according to a study by non-profit EWI Energy Research & ...
Climate activists’ guerrilla-style protest against lignite mining in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has divided the region, reports Stefan Schultz in a long article in Spiegel Online. The dispute dates back to 2012, but is now ...
The stock market launch of innogy could make RWE’s green subsidiary Germany’s most valuable utility, writes Antje Höning in Rheinische Post. If the stock price of 36 euros- determined by auction- remains unchanged, innogy will be worth around 20 billion ...
The reform of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) could spell the end for Germany’s grassroots energy cooperatives, reports Guy Chazan in the Financial Times. The new auction system poses large financial risks for cooperatives, members of the sector told ...
Chancellor Angela Merkel stands by the German government’s goal to have one million electric vehicles on Germany’s roads by 2020, she said in an interview broadcast live on YouTube. “No, no, no, I have not given it up. […] I only said we have to do more, ...
German carmakers rank first in worldwide research and development, accounting for about a third of the automobile industry’s total global R&D investment, according to the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). The country’s manufacturers ...
German transmission grid operators say fears about an overstraining of the grid due to an increased use of e-cars and heat pumps are unfounded, Dow Jones Newswires Germany reports. Utility associations in southern Germany recently warned that the nuclear ...
Laboratory emissions tests carried out by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) for the European Commission suggested that Audi manipulated the diesel engine in the current A3 model to meet emissions limits, report Joachim Becker, Alexander Mühlauer and Klaus ...
A consortium of German companies has made a fresh attempt to establish battery cell production in the country, Alfons Frese writes in Tagesspiegel. Plant manufacturers Thyssen-Krupp, M+W and Manz have teamed up with cell producers Litarion, ...
A new service by power price comparison website Verivox could threaten the business model of German electricity suppliers, writes Jan Schmidbauer in Süddeutsche Zeitung. Verivox reminds customers about cheaper offers and carries out the switch to a new ...
Small wind power projects are hurrying to receive all necessary permissions to build their wind parks before the switch to an auction-based system for the state support for wind power facilities, writes Sebastian Latzel in Rheinische Post. The new system ...
The G20 leaders must show readiness for compromise at the Hamburg summit, “without bending their own positions too much”, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel during her opening remarks to leaders of the world’s largest economies, ahead of the first ...
The federal economy ministry (BMWi) has made available an English version of last year’s Fifth Energiewende Monitoring Report, together with the accompanying expert statement. Find the report in English here, the expert statement in English here and an ...
The Federation of German Industries (BDI) has called on the government to get the costs of the country’s energy transition under control. “The brake on costs promised by the economics ministry has turned out to be no more than wishful thinking,” said BDI ...
Germany’s buyer’s premium for electric cars introduced last year has had a meagre impact, writes Hanne Schweitzer in Zeit Online. The money earmarked for the incentive can cover between 300,000 and 400,000 cars, but authorities received a mere 9,023 ...
Two years after the diesel emissions fraud scandal broke in September 2015, German carmakers fail to come up with available e-car models at the Frankfurt Car Show (IAA) and instead present “ more diesel-SUVs than ever before,” NGO Environmental Action ...
The sanction proposals directed at Russia, which the US House of Representatives will vote on on Tuesday, endanger the German-Russian gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2, writes Winand von Petersdorff in an opinion piece in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. ...
Volkswagen is pushing natural gas engines in the desperate hope of remaining below the EU’s 2020 fleet emission targets, writes Christian Frahm in Spiegel Online. “According to sources within the Wolfsburg headquarters, the company will not be able to ...
There are no significant adverse effects to human health stemming from wind turbines, according to a study by Germany’s Federal Environment Agency (UBA). Scientists analysed the health risks wind turbines might pose due to noise emissions (including ...
Among the motivations for Germany's reform of its renewable energy support system have been complaints from neighbouring countries, and the EU Commission’s rules on state aid to the energy sector, writes Dave Keating for Deutsche Welle. But Dörte ...
Green politician and state premier of Baden-Wuerttemberg Winfried Kretschmann called on car manufacturers to speed up the transition to e-cars, as Chinese competition required greater efforts, reports Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “We want to be a ...
The negotiations between the federal government and Germany’s nuclear power plant operating utilities about the clean-up costs are coming to a close, writes Andreas Mihm in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The utilities “would only be responsible for ...
Germany’s capital Berlin is the country’s only city to make it into the top ten of a ranking by the IESE Business School of global smart cities, the IESE has said in a press release. Berlin ranked 9 th in IESE’s Cities in Motion Index (CIMI) and scored ...
German utility RWE’s green subsidiary innogy is interested in joining the joint venture automakers announced to deploy a fast-charging network for e-vehicles covering European travel routes, writes Jürgen Flauger in Handelsblatt. “The initiative is ...
Members of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) group in the Bundestag have strongly criticised the current draft of federal environment minister Barbara Hendricks’ Climate Action Plan 2050, Silke Kersting and Klaus Stratmann write in ...
With a human chain stretching over three countries, activists in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands are to protest against the incident-prone Belgian nuclear plants Tihange and Doel, Tobias Müller writes in Tageszeitung (taz). The organisers of the ...
After two years of construction and trial phases, German utility EnBW’s subsidiary TransnetBW is beginning operation of its central control room, dpa reports in an article carried by Welt Online. The grid operator intends to manage the Baden-Wuerttemberg ...
The cost for the clean-up and storage of Germany’s nuclear waste and other radioactive material is hard to predict, controversial and will be much higher than current official calculations suggets, writes Joel Stonington in an article for Yale Environment ...
Germany’s Federal Court of Auditors has shown shortsightedness and a lack of understanding in implying that the energy transition is “ too expensive ” and therefore needs “limitation”, Malte Kreutzfeldt writes in a commentary for Tageszeitung (taz). The ...
The European Union would lose a strong voice for ambitious climate protection policy if the UK leaves following last week’s referendum, writes Claudia Kemfert from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in a guest commentary for Capital. A ...
13 Jun 2016
13 Jun 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Kerstine Appunn 91tv 91tv Süddeutsche Zeitung “Don’t miss the transition” Renewable energies have become so cheap that many countries have started an Energiewende, only for Germany to hit the brakes with its ...
German economy minister Sigmar Gabriel rejects blanket bans for heavily polluting cars in inner cities in order to bring down unlawfully high nitrogen oxide (NO x) values, Markus Balser and Michael Bauchmüller write in Süddeutsche Zeitung. Gabriel’s ...
Affordable climate protection is the most important task for the energy industry- and gas-fired power generation could be key, says Timm Kehler, director of natural gas industry group Zukunft Erdgas, writes Volker Budinger in an article part of a natural ...
Volkswagen has confirmed that a settlement with US authorities regarding the company’s emissions fraud scandal is within reach. VW “negotiated a concrete draft of a settlement agreement” which contains “fines with a total amount of USD 4.3 billion”, ...
There will be great upheaval in individual economic sectors from decisions made in the latest Climate Action Plan 2050 agreement, writes Andreas Mihm in an opinion piece for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He says that many of the demands that have ...
Even though international wholesale prices for natural gas prices fell in 2016, suppliers did not fully pass this decline on to consumers, according to a study by consultancy EnergyComment, commissioned by the Green parliamentary group in the German ...
The scandal about emissions from diesel cars has had no noticeable impact on diesel sales at Daimler, the head the German carmaker, Dieter Zetsche, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “Eleven months after the VW case became public, the share of ...
German pension institutions aren’t taking account climate risks in their investment strategies, according to a survey commissioned by WWF Germany. “This can have serious consequences,” Matthias Kopp, director of sustainable finance at WWF Germany, said in ...
Prices of winning bids for solar photovoltaic installations have gone down again in the latest round of tenders in Germany, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) said in a press release. 27 bids for a total of 163 megawatts of auctioned capacity were ...
Auto industry unions fear the pending transport revolution puts hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk, reports Alfons Frese in Tagesspiegel. Metalworkers union IG Metall and the heads of work councils at VW, Daimler, Opel, Bosch and Continental propose to ...
German car customers are losing interest in diesel engines as the evolving emissions scandal and looming driving bans in many German cities take their toll on the once dominant technology, Focus Online reports. Diesel registrations fell by 9.1 percent in ...
Green politician Hans-Josef Fell criticises the federal government for proposing in its recently published " Concept for Civil Defence ” only “old, unfit concepts” such as military and police protection to deal with consequences of attacks or ...
A study by the influential Pew Research Center has found that confidence by citizens around the world in the leadership skills of German Chancellor Angela Merkel decisively outweighs that in US President Donald Trump. While 42 percent of respondents in 37 ...
As China has begun to refocus the G20 energy agenda on sustainability, Germany should use its upcoming presidency to further boost the importance of energy within the intergovernmental institution, writes Andreas Kraemer in a policy brief for Canada-based ...
The federal economy ministry (BMWi) has published the results of the discussion process concerning last year’s green book on energy efficiency and the impulse paper on long term trends “Electricity 2030”. BMWi plans a white book on energy efficiency as a ...
German premium car manufacturer Daimler faces possibly the greatest change in its history, Max Hägler and Stefan Mayr write in Süddeutsche Zeitung. With 30 billion euros in investments within the next two years, Daimler’s CEO Dieter Zetsche seems ...
Onshore wind power in Germany will be expanded beyond the industry’s expectations and federal government plans in the coming years, writes Daniel Wetzel in Die Welt, based on data provided by the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA). Investors who had ...
Vattenfall’s business clients can use their roofs to produce solar energy without having to invest into the construction of the array, according to a company press release. The Swedish utility will pay for the construction and maintenance of the system ...
German economy minister Sigmar Gabriel’s decision to scrap the harmonisation of grid fees across the country continues to outrage politicians in eastern Germany, Jens Tartler writes in Tagesspiegel. Heads of eastern states accuse the federal government of ...
Two former Volkswagen employees serving as key witnesses for US authorities have accused former and current members of the German carmaker’s top management of trying to cover up VW’s emissions fraud scheme, Claus Hulverscheidt, Georg Mascolo and Klaus Ott ...
With the reform of the Renewable Energy Act “reason has returned to ecology” in Germany, writes Jasper von Altenbockum in an opinion piece in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The reform was about “wringing out a quantum of market economy” from the ...
German carmakers BMW, Daimler, Audi and Porsche – usually “best enemies” – joined forces a year ago to develop e-car charging infrastructure, Max Hälger and Stefan Mayr write for Süddeutsche Zeitung. The brands teamed up to “to share the burden of initial ...
Germany will inevitably scrap coal-fired power production even though the move has not yet been officially announced, Klaus Stratmann writes in Handelsblatt. Coal-fired generating units with an installed capacity of 4,772 megawatts – the equivalent of ...
The reform of the Renewable Energy Act, which includes the introduction of tenders for renewables, is a challenge for all Energiewende players- but especially for citizens, according to a new brochure by the German Cities Council, local utilities ...
It is “remarkable” that the G20 summit in Hamburg did not end up in scandal given that US President Donald Trump came across like a “grizzly bear among a mountaineering rope team”, writes Stefan Ulrich in an opinion piece for Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Above ...
The approval of the government’s long-awaited Climate Action Plan 2050 in cabinet in the coming weeks remains uncertain, according to the environment ministry. “We would like to have a Climate Action Plan before the start of the COP 22 in Marrakesh, but ...
07 Jun 2016
07 Jun 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Kerstine Appunn Julian Wettengel 91tv 91tv Süddeutsche Zeitung Crucial German power grid extension delayed The construction and completion of important power lines in Germany will be delayed by at least three ...
Tesla will do in three years what Porsche took a decade to do, Evercore ISI analyst George Galliers said in a research note, reports CNBC. Following the buildout of the Model 3, Tesla had the potential to achieve sustainable gross margins comparable to ...
British plans to ban the combustion engine in new cars by 2040 make it clear that a change in propulsion systems was needed, Christian Democratic transport politician and former state transport minister of North Rhine-Westphalia Oliver Wittke told ...
SolarWorld’s provisional insolvency administrator is in talks with a group of investors that may be interested in acquiring the company’s German manufacturing facilities in Freiberg and Arnstadt, according to a company press release, reports pv magazine. ...
The federal German government is currently not planning a combustion engine ban similar to British plans. “A ban of diesel or petrol cars is currently not on the agenda of the federal government. It’s about making possible a low-emission mobility,” a ...
Germany’s foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel expects China to relax its new rules on electric cars, reports Deutsche Welle. The talks on softening the ambitious e-car quota were "on the right track," Gabriel said during a visit in Beijing. The ...
Many German wind power projects that appear to be owned by citizens’ energy cooperatives can be associated with the major wind power planning company UKA, German national TV station MDR says in an article on its website. According to MDR, UKA is Germany’s ...
Changing the world’s energy supply from fossil fuels to renewable sources would result in net economic gains, according to a study by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA). The agencies’ study, ...
Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks did well not to rush approval for the watered-down climate plan before the COP22, writes Joachim Wille in an opinion piece in Frankfurter Rundschau. “It may be embarrassing to arrive at the summit in Marrakesh empty ...
German economy minister Sigmar Gabriel’s attempts to negotiate a postponement for German carmakers to implement China’s new mandatory e-car quota have been in vain, Christoph Giesen and Max Hägler write in Süddeutsche Zeitung. Beijing is determined to put ...
The political debate on imposing a ban on diesel engines in German cities continues unabated after the state government in Baden-Württemberg was forced by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure to withdraw a clean air plan, Josef ...
“Secret settlements” between Volkswagen dealers and customers have helped avoid landmark decisions against the carmaker before higher German courts and could lead to the limitation of claims for customers affected by the emissions scandal, write Markus ...
The market for e-cars is growing much slower in Germany than in other countries like China, according to a study by Center of Automotive Management (CAM), writes Focus Online. In the first eight months of 2016, China sold 240,000 new e-cars, 123 percent ...
Scholars from the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) and several universities have published a handbook for local governments and other players on how to better engage citizens in the transition of Germany’s energy system. The handbook, ...
If the goal is to limit global greenhouse gas emissions, it is inefficient to break this down into individual national targets, writes Christoph M. Schmidt of Rhineland-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research (RWI Essen) in a guest commentary in Die ...
Five people are employed around the clock in the control room of the first German lignite plant switched off to protect the climate, according to a feature by Steffen Höhne in Frankfurter Rundschau. They are there to keep the station fit for service but ...
Mercedes-Benz Energy teams up with US solar energy company Vivint Solar to bring Mercedes-Benz’s home energy storage system to California, the companies announced in a press release. Mercedes has been selling the batteries in Europe and South Africa this ...
Germany will likely miss several renewables and emissions targets despite the reform of certain key regulations concerning the German electricity sector carried out by the federal government and parliament in 2016, according to a background paper by think ...
Writing a commentary in Die Welt, Daniel Wetzel takes aim at German politicians’ calls to prevent the 6.3 billion-euro nuclear fuel tax refund to energy companies. Katja Kipling, co-chair of the Left party has called on the government to redirect the ...
08 Jun 2017
Volkswagen’s diesel engines are still emitting nitrogen oxide above legal limit, even after being recalled and upgraded, Gerald Traufetter writes for Spiegel Online, citing a report by ZDF. In the wake of the VW emission scandal, German Transport Minister ...
It doesn’t make economic sense for German carmakers to produce e-car battery cells, according to Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche. “We know today that we can buy them for a fraction of our costs on the international market […] and no-one knows which technology ...
02 May 2016
02 May 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Julian Wettengel 91tv 91tv Handelsblatt “Dwindling chances for fracking” The proposed fracking law has been delayed and might not be adopted in the current legislative period, writes Klaus Stratmann in ...
Almost no other country hosts as many important car manufacturers side-by-side as Germany and, with about 800,000 employees nationwide, the industry “has an invaluable social responsibility ”, Thomas Fromm writes in a commentary for Süddeutsche Zeitung. ...
Deutsche Welle has published a video report showing how utility RWE continues to mine and use lignite for electricity production in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. “Energy giant RWE has been relying on coal for too long now, and its ...
When power prices linger below zero for six hours or more, wind turbines larger than 3 megawatts in capacity don’t receive any remuneration. This could become a problem for wind farm operators when more hours with negative prices occur after a possible ...
07 Oct 2016, 00:00 Only in a best case scenario will Germany be able to reach its goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020, the latest projections from the environment ministry show according to analysts. The opposition in parliament and ...
German energy think tank Agora Energiewende* has published the English version of a paper that examines the implications of regulation reforms such as the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) and the power market reform. These will bring “fundamental changes” for ...
Despite very different conditions for solar power in India and Germany, the former could learn from the European country’s experience that the government is not the primary actor in the market, but should act as a facilitator, writes Tobias Engelmeier for ...
The latest diesel summit of Germany’s federal government and representatives of municipalities with high levels of air pollution has been a “failure”, Jürgen Resch, head of organisation Environmental Action Germany (DUH), said in a press release. None of ...
German utility RWE and its subsidiary innogy have determined the price range for shares of innogy SE in the Initial Public Offering (IPO) to range from 32 euros to 36 euros. Innogy would be valued between 17.8 billion and 20 billion euros and RWE will ...
Peruvian farmer Saúl Lliuya is suing German utility RWE in the District Court of Essen, saying the company’s carbon emissions drive climate change and threaten his home town Huaraz, writes Gero Rueter for Deutsche Welle. Lliuya says global warming is ...
A new book by physicist and German energy industry manager Thomas Unnerstall outlines key pro and con positions on the German energy transition, writes Klaus Stratmann in a book review in the Handelsblatt. While Unnerstall says many companies have not ...
German utility EnBW posted a 17-percent decline in first-quarter core profit, reports Christoph Steitz for Reuters. The company blamed the unscheduled shutdown of its Philippsburg 2 nuclear plant. EnBW reaffirmed full-year financial forecasts, because it ...
Germany’s foreign policy with Russia is one of the reasons why the federal government backs the creation of an EU Energy Union at the same time as the construction of the contentious pipeline Nord Stream 2 that is to connect the two countries, writes ...
With an increase of almost 5 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions, the transport sector contributed most to the rise of German energy-related CO₂ emissions in the first half of 2017, compared to the same period last year, according to think tanks Agora ...
Germany needs regional power markets and a legislation overhaul to cope with its increasingly decentralised electricity system, and replace the current “chaos” in grid fees, levies and taxes, according to think tank Agora Energiewende.* “We need to all ...
Environment minister Barbara Hendricks’ announcement that she did not expect the cabinet to approve her Climate Action Plan 2050 before COP22 in Marrakesh next week “marks the latest embarrassment for a country that once pioneered the fight against global ...
According to business consultancy PwC, there are around 100 "virtual power plants" in Germany, which usually pool different kinds of renewable energy projects, Steffen Ermisch reports in Handelsblatt. 37 of them participate in the market for ...
The German Institute for Urbanistics (Difu) has launched an online tool to help German municipalities calculate the economic impacts of refurbishing buildings to modern energy efficiency standards. The “value creation calculator” processes data on the ...
The federal agriculture ministry wants to make further changes to the already watered down Climate Action Plan 2050 by Social Democrat environment minister Barbara Hendricks, writes Jan Grossarth in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). An internal ...
Germany’s Technical Inspection Authority (TÜV) increasingly relies on drones to inspect solar power and on- and offshore wind parks, Michael Kuntz writes in Süddeutsche Zeitung. After a two-year trial phase, drones have proven to be very efficient for ...
The VW decision against its own battery cell production shows that Germany is no longer an option as a location for the industry, writes car industry researcher Ferdinand Dudenhöffer in a commentary for bizz energy. Daimler stopped its own cell production ...
Germany will probably miss its target of bringing one million electric cars on to the roads by 2020, according to Chancellor Angela Merkel. “As it looks at the moment, we will not achieve this goal,” Merkel told fellow lawmakers, reports Michael Nienaber ...
By banning private diesel cars from the inner city, Oslo has done what German municipalities do not dare to do, Claus Hecking writes on Spiegel Online. The controversial diesel ban is the first of its kind in the often smog-ridden Norwegian capital, ...
The latest figures published by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) refute US president-elect Donald Trump’s claim that solar power is particularly expensive, Bernhard Pötter writes in leftist daily taz. According to the IRENA report ...
Cooperation and the bundling of resources can help local German utilities cope with challenges brought on by the energy transition, writes Jürgen Flauger in the Handelsblatt. Local utilities in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Duisburg have initiated cooperation ...
In a wide-ranging acceptance speech to members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) after his nomination as Chancellor candidate, former President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz also spoke about environment and climate protection. Schulz said ...
Government plans to let e-car drivers use all public charging stations without prior registration or a contract with the operator are an important step for electric mobility, writes Ruth Herberg in Wirtschaftswoche. A mobile app could enable on-site ...
German representatives used the first meeting by the German-Belgian nuclear commission “to convey the worries of the German population [about Belgian nuclear power stations Tihange 2 and Doel 3] and remind them of the request by environment minister ...
The Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) has published a Green Paper on energy efficiency and today starts the consultation process to find solutions for the long term reduction of energy consumption in Germany. The ministry wants to discuss ...
Germany’s federal grid agency (BNetzA) has launched the second round of PV auctions, under new rules agreed last year. A volume of 200 megawatts will be auctioned off, and bids must not exceed 8.91 cents/kWh. Find the press release in German here. For ...
Excitement over technological innovations and the digitalisation of the energy system are “only one side of the coin” of Germany’s energy transition, Daniel Wetzel writes in weekly newspaper Welt am Sonntag. “The other side is that planners and architects ...
German energy group Uniper, formed last year from the fossil fuel assets of E.ON, achieved all its financial targets in 2016, CEO Klaus Schäfer said at the company’s first annual shareholders meeting in Essen on Thursday. Uniper posted an adjusted pre-tax ...
23 May 2016
23 May 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Julian Wettengel 91tv 91tv Handelsblatt / Süddeutsche Zeitung “Energiewende gets more expensive” The energy and economy ministry believes a rise in the renewable surcharge for next year is “likely,” according ...
Placing Germany’s planned power transmission lines below ground will require a massive material and political effort, Andreas Macho writes in WirtschaftsWoche. The exact location of the two transmission lines SuedLink and SuedOstLink, which are supposed ...
The spread of electronic cars would make Germany’s cities much more hospitable, writes Joachim Käppner in an opinion piece for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Currently, many cities were unable “to ensure compliance with regulations for clean air even with ...
Around 50,000 people joined hands on 25 June across the borders of Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany to form a 90-kilometre human chain in protest against the incident-prone Belgian nuclear power plants at Doel and Tihange, Rheinische Post reports. The ...
Grid congestion at the Austrian border that led to last week’s decision by the German government to prepare the split of the common power price zone was a “homemade problem”, writes Christian Geinitz in an opinion piece for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. ...
Only two in five diesel car drivers plan to stick with the technology when buying their next car, while the rest are unsure or want to switch to an alternative drive, according to a survey by pollster forsa, reports news agency dpa. Most respondents said ...
German administrative districts (Landkreise) want to be more independent of energy imports, writes Angela Schmid in WirtschaftsWoche. The rise of renewables had brought new possibilities to many regions. “In plain language this means: Instead of ...
The federal government cabinet has today decided on the draft budget for 2017 – which now has to be approved by parliament. The economy and energy department will be allocated 7.4 billion euros, 3 billion of which will be used in research, development and ...
The Energiewende and digitalisation will increase mergers and acquisitions in the utility sector because they break down boundaries between markets and put traditional business models in doubt, consultancy PwC said in a press release. The consultancy is ...
Carmakers including VW, BMW and Daimler plan to set up a nationwide fast charging network for electric cars, according to an unsourced report in Bild. The mass daily reports talks between the carmakers and petrol station operator Tank+Rast, aimed at ...
Eastern German state premiers are urging the federal government to agree quickly on planned legislation to standardise electricity grid fees across the country, writes Albert Funk in Der Tagesspiegel. In a letter to the Chief of the German Chancellery ...
Dutch company Fastned has announced it will start expanding its network of rapid e-vehicle charging points along European highways into Germany. In a press release, the company said it would cooperate with the municipality of Limburg, hotel chain Van der ...
The government has put the finishing touches on draft legislation to support Germany’s booming car-sharing market, business daily Handelsblatt has learned. “The goal is to make it possible for the states to set up special parking places and free parking ...
17 Jun 2016
17 Jun 2016, 00:00 Julian Wettengel 91tv 91tv Federal Environment Agency “Climate protection contributions of the transport sector by 2050” Germany's transport sector will need to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by about 98 percent to ...
The resolute application of a ban on diesel vehicles in big cities would upset economic activity as trucks, delivery vans and buses for public transport would be prohibited as well, writes Holger Appel in an opinion piece in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ...
Energy and climate policy is likely to play a minor role in the 2017 election campaign programme of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), writes Andreas Mihm in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The party leadership on Monday decided on the ...
German utility RWE saw a 13 percent earnings drop in the first nine months of the year, reflecting tough conditions in conventional power generation in Germany, reports Guy Chazan for the Financial Times. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and ...
Daimler employees producing conventional engines, gearboxes and other components feel unsettled by the company’s push into e-mobility despite record sales, reports Susanne Preuß in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Michael Brecht, head of the company’s ...
The United States' “short-sighted and irresponsible” withdrawal from the Paris Agreement has prompted the G20 engagement groups to call on the remaining G19 member states to “convincingly show their willingness to implement the deal” at the upcoming ...
German environment minister Barbara Hendricks welcomed the commitment to climate protection that all G7 members except the United States made in the final communiqué of the environment minister meeting in Italy, according to a press release. “The Paris ...
Germany’s 270 billion-euro Federal Traffic Way Plan is a “document of missed chances”, says Georg Ehring in an opinion piece for national radio station Deutschlandfunk. Ehring says the plan fails to signal real change on how traffic is to be managed. ...
Third-quarter operating profit at the VW brand plunged more than half to 363 million euros, underlinding the need for savings to finance the transition to electric cars, according to a Reuters report. The figure is well below analysts’ forecasts. “The ...
Germany’s third largest utility EnBW hopes investments in wind power and digital services will help it shed the image of a climate-damaging coal and nuclear company, reports Richard Fuchs for broadcaster Deutschlandradio. EnBW is using new management ...
Cabinet approval of environment minister Barbara Hendricks’ Climate Action Plan 2050 before she travels to the COP22 in Marrakesh could be possible after all, reports news agency dpa. Ministry sources told dpa that Chancellor Angela Merkel had signalled ...
The IÖW has published a study on the role small home power generating installations can play in the German energy system, with regulatory recommendations to encourage their use. A growing number of citizens and businesses are generating power and partly ...
Brown coal is causing a rift between the Social Democrat and Left Party coalition in the state of Brandenburg, Germany’s second biggest lignite mining region, according to a dpa report carried by Die Welt. Thomas Domres, head of the Left Party’s ...
Chancellor Angela Merkel calls climate change "a question of survival", but blocks a coal exit in Germany, according to Greenpeace. "Climate protection without coal exit is like trying to extinguish a fire with petrol," said ...
Biofuels “celebrate a secret comeback” in the recently adopted Climate Action Plan 2050 by the German federal government, writes Daniel Wetzel in die Welt. “In the target scenario, the energy supply of street and rail traffic, as well as parts of air and ...
Germany is ranked 29th in this year’s Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) by environmental organisation Germanwatch – a position blamed on lagging greenhouse gas emissions reduction and the lack of a clear roadmap for ending coal-fired power ...
Germany’s largest power producer RWE teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, writes Sebastian Balzter in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. The utility urgently needs cash to pay for the nuclear exit. If the sale of the renewable subsidiary “Innogy” on ...
Partial diesel bans aimed at improving local air quality are possible in most of Germany’s 20 largest cities, according to a survey by business daily Handelsblatt. 13 cities told the paper they would consider such bans, five said they were undecided and ...
The Green Party in the Bavarian state parliament says that Germany’s largest nuclear power plant Gundremmingen, operated in part by RWE, has exceeded power output limits several times over the past year and a half by up to 20 percent, writes Süddeutsche ...
Reducing the dependence on imported fossil fuels is one of the targets of German energy policy – but is the switch to an energy system based on domestic renewables the answer, ask researchers from the Ifo Institut, Center for Economic Studies, in an ...
The significant increase of investments into renewables in G20 countries is insufficient to meet the Paris Climate Agreement’s pledge to keep global warming well below two degrees Celsius, Klaus Stratmann and Silke Kersting write in Handelsblatt Global. ...
Raising grid fees substantially- and the resulting rise in cost for electricity in Germany announced for the turn of the year – is not fully justified, Claudia Kemfert of the German Institute of Economic Research (DIW Berlin), told Frankfurter Rundschau. ...
Germany’s most important carmakers have met in “secret workshops” since the 1990s in order to coordinate their exhaust gas treatment systems and collude to fix technology, costs and suppliers, weekly news magazine Der Spiegel and associated website ...
Following the German constitutional court’s ruling this week upholding the government's 2011 decision to accelerate the nuclear exit, nuclear plant operators are continuing legal proceedings against the state, Jost Müller-Neuhof writes in ...
By conceding to both government and nuclear plant operators' positions, Germany’s constitutional court has made a pragmatic judgement in one of the country’s most ideological disputes of the past decades, writes Jürgen Flauger for Handelsblatt. But ...
Germany’s offshore wind energy industry expects a further drop in costs for new projects contracted by bidding processes, representatives of the industry said at a press conference of the German Wind Energy Association (BWE). “More practical experience ...
The German energy sector is slowly embracing digitalisation with its push towards decentralisation, writes Ulrich Schäfer in a column in Süddeutsche Zeitung. It is starting to depart from “the centralistic, military precision” thinking and management. ...
Germany in 2012 provided 57 billion euros in subsidies that were detrimental to the environment, of which more than 90 percent were harmful to the climate, according to a report by Federal Environment Agency (UBA). “It’s paradoxical: Germany commits ...
G20 governments put four times more money into fossil energy generation than into renewables- despite their official commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement’s aims, NGOs including WWF, Urgewald and Friends of the Earth say in a press release. In a ...
Some 350,000 households in Germany are unable to pay the power bills, Craig Morris writes in Energytransistion.de. The figure is available in data provided by Germany’s Federal Network Agency. Such statistics, however, remain largely unavailable in ...
The governments of France and Germany have vowed to make cross-sectoral climate protection covering all areas “a priority” of their bilateral activities. In a joint statement by the Franco-German council of ministers, the countries’ leaderships said they ...
The direct physical effects of climate change “very likely do not constitute a risk” for the stability of European financial markets until 2030, according to preliminary results of an upcoming report by the Federal Ministry of Finance. “How likely ...
German chancellor Angela Merkel will seek a fourth term in office in next year’s federal parliamentary elections. She faces a tough campaign unlike any other she has fought in an “increasingly polarised” country, Merkel announced in Berlin. “The decision ...
Old coal-fired power plants can be made more flexible at reasonable expense, allowing countries with a high share of coal-based electricity to make a smooth transition to a climate-friendly energy system, according to a new study by think tank Agora ...
E.ON CEO Johannes Teyssen calls the company’s split last year an “act of liberation,” but according to an article by Jürgen Flauger in business daily Handelsblatt, it was an extremely expensive one. In a long analysis of the company’s balance sheet, ...
The German Parliament has decided there will be no regulatory obligation for average households to install smart meters for their electricity consumption, writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). However, from next year on, large consumers with 10 ...
Chancellor Angela Merkel has angered her coalition partner SPD (Social Democratic Party) with her statement that Germany will probably miss its target of bringing one million electric cars on to the roads by 2020, writes news agency dpa. Economy minister ...
By not publishing CO₂ emissions test results, the federal government is protecting Germany’s auto industry and thus hindering important innovation in efficiency and climate protection, writes Bernhard Pötter in an opinion piece in taz. “If in ten years ...
Robert Habeck, Schleswig-Holstein state minister for the Energiewende, calls for reducing Germany’s renewables surcharge, instead of increasing it as grid operators did today, writes the regional newspaper shz. Habeck proposes a government-administered ...
Almost all bids from Germany’s first 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. “The result ...
Germany will be able to fulfil its Paris Climate Agreement obligations as well as the EU’s 2030 climate targets with a continued use of coal-fired power production, trade union IG BCE’s head Michael Vassiliadis said in an interview with Dresdner Neueste ...
Financing issues regarding the contentious offshore gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 could be resolved with the signing of agreements for the project with ENGIE, OMV, Shell, Uniper and Wintershall. The five European energy companies will together provide 50 ...
06 May 2016
06 May 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 91tv 91tv Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung “Everything for the global climate” A leaked draft of the Climate Action Plan 2050 shows the path the German environment ministry wants to take to carbon neutrality ...
Mercedes-Benz is launching a sharing platform for private cars of all brands in Munich at the start of December. “Croove is the name of the new app-based service that pairs up private vehicle owners and hirers,” Daimler said in a press release. “By ...
The digitalisation of Germany’s power market attracts entirely new players, reports Daniel Wetzel in daily Die Welt. Internet providers, new utility subsidiaries, and independent start-ups all try out new business models for a digitalised and ...
With federal elections coming up in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel “needs some sort of win on climate change at the G20”, Andrew Light, a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute (WRI) told the Washington Post. Things will “get interesting” at ...
Spinning off its fossil operations into Uniper is costing German utility E.ON dear, reports Jürgen Flauger in business daily Handelsblatt. Because Uniper’s market capitalisation is much lower than the figure on E.ON’s books, the company had to post a net ...
More and more new car buyers in Germany are considering vehicles that don't just run on fossil fuels, the German Energy Agency (dena) writes in a press release. According to a survey commissioned by dena, 27 percent of respondents said they intended ...
Almost two-thirds of German residents say the government is thwarting the country’s energy transition in heating by not providing enough consumer incentives to switch from systems burning fossil fuel to those using renewable energy, according to the ...
In an interview with German public broadcaster ARD, Green Party head Cem Özdemir and his Free Democratic (FDP) counterpart, Christian Lindner, discussed the possibility of joining a government coalition after the general election. Lindner said he ...
The discussions about climate change in Germany and the US differ greatly and climate change denial was “practically absent” from public debate in German media, said climate scientist and ethnologist Werner Krauß in an interview with Deutschlandfunk. ...
The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) published an interactive map on Germany’s public e-car charging station infrastructure on its website. The map currently shows the location, type of plug and charging capacity of 3,335 charging points across the country ...
Electricity prices in Germany are going up, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Of 832 public utilities and local power companies, 244 have announced price hikes of 3 percent on average since the beginning of the year — an increase that matched that ...
Supporters of solar power are seeking to head off a proposed legal constraint on small modules that can be easily plugged into wall sockets, writes Bernward Janzing in taz. The German section of the International Solar Energy Society (DGS) wants to see a ...
The four German transmission grid operators and Austrian grid operator APG have agreed to cooperate on secondary balancing power. The aim is for grid operators to work more closely to shape a harmonised European market for secondary balancing power. By ...
German utility RWE is considering selling its majority stake in Hungary's second biggest power plant and related lignite mines, as the German utility reviews its struggling generation assets across Europe, report Tom Käckenhoff and Krisztina Than for ...
Diesel cars’ share of new vehicle registrations in Germany fell below 45 percent in September to reach the lowest level in five years, reports Sebastian Viehmann for Focus Online. Car expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the Center for Automotive ...
German transmission grid operators confirmed today that the Renewable Energy Act (EEG)-surcharge will rise from the current 6.35 cents per kilowatt hour (ct/kWh) to 6.88 ct/kWh in 2017. The EEG surcharge covers the difference between the wholesale market ...
08 Jun 2016
08 Jun 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Kerstine Appunn Julian Wettengel 91tv 91tv Federal government Renewables law reform gets government approval Angela Merkel’s cabinet has decided on the reform of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) that is to take ...
Engineers at the Technical University in Braunschweig have developed a wireless charging system for e-cars, Wirtschaftswoche reports. A trial involving taxis will test the technology for “inductive charging” next month. The technology is already used by ...
Today, all a household needs to secure an autonomous power supply is a roof-top solar panel, internet access and a cupboard-sized battery in the basement, writes Inge Kloepfer in weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. By offering just that, ...
The introduction of auctions for wind power support with the recent Reform of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) will lead to more turbines being built in German forests, writes Andreas Macho in WirtschaftsWoche. Only the most cost-effective wind parks would ...
The EU Commission’s “winter package” on energy policy has been criticised by politicians and environmental organisations, but it does contain “some positive surprises,” writes Verena Kern for klimaretter.info, based on an assessment by think tank Agora ...
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s role as host of the upcoming G20 summit in Hamburg will not be easy should the US administration decide to pull out of the Paris Agreement, because other countries – “the eternal laggards” – would “relapse into old blockade ...
RWE subsidiary innogy SE is bolstering its position in energy storage and photovoltaics by signing a contract to take over German solar and battery specialist BELECTRIC Solar & Battery Holding GmbH. The takeover “instantly makes innogy an ...
German automotive supplier Continental expects its 2017 profit to be significantly lower than the previous year. The drop is down to “potential expenditure for warranties and pending antitrust proceedings and the aftermath of three earthquakes in Japan as ...
Norbert Röttgen (Christian Democratic Union), chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the German Bundestag, demands that the federal government stop plans to construct the contentious gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 between Germany and Russia, according ...
Germany and California have agreed to ramp up their cooperation and commitment to reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement and limiting the effects of global warming, the California Environmental Protection Agency said in a press release. Germany’s State ...
Renewables support does not increase consumer power prices in Germany, Ralph Diermann writes in Süddeutsche Zeitung, based on an analysis by price comparison website Stromauskunft.de. While the EEG surcharge that finances renewables development has risen ...
The renewables surcharge rise is long since decoupled from the expansion of wind and solar power, and is rather a consequence of low wholesale power prices, writes Georg Ehring in an opinion piece for Deutschlandfunk. “The price at the electricity ...
It is sad to see politicians such as transport minister Alexander Dobrindt and Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer try to protect the car industry against calls for a ban on combustion engines from 2030, writes Annina Reimann in a commentary for ...
The German government defended its handling of the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal, after the European Commission opened infringement proceedings against Germany and six other countries over how they have dealt with such polluters, according to a ...
Germany's energy transition has to become more European and more innovative, Michael Fuchs writes in Handelsblatt. Fuchs — who serves as vice chairman of Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and is in charge of economy and ...
Trying to micro-manage Germany’s long-term path to decarbonisation with a government climate plan is doomed to fail, because “politics is regularly unable to plan and regulate for decades,” writes Klaus Stratmann in an opinion piece in Handelsblatt. He ...
German states’ resolution to recommend the phase-out of new combustion engine vehicles at EU level by 2030 was “one of the most brilliant political coups of recent years”, even if it was mainly symbolic, write Sven Böll and Horand Knaup in weekly magazine ...
The Social Democrats’ (SPD) deputy chair Ralf Stegner has said that as far as he is concerned, the German coal exit is not a question of “if” but “how.” At the debate forum“Sustainability and climate protection: What roadmap do the parties have?”, ...
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on citizens to make better use of existing financial support programmes to replace old heating systems in her weekly video podcast. She said households were crucial for increasing efficiency and the success of ...
The new governing coalition of conservative CDU and economic liberal FDP in Germany's most populous federal state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) seems intent on curbing wind power expansion but is hit by resistance from the job-creating industry, Guido ...
The squabbling in the German government over its Climate Action Plan 2050 is a result of the seriousness with which the topic is being treated, writes Bernhard Pötter in a commentary for Deutschlandfunk’s website. “Most other countries come up with some ...
The lack of a specific phase-out policy for coal is a “missed opportunity of an accelerated decarbonisation of the German energy system,” according to a policy briefing by UK-based Centre on Innovation and Energy Demand (CIED). The paper argues that ...
The number of new renewable energy cooperatives has decreased by another 25 percent in 2015, compared to 2014 figures, cooperatives association DGRV found in a survey. Last year saw the establishment of 40 new cooperatives. But the boom years are over, ...
Germany has capped the expansion of offshore wind power to 3.1 gigawatts (GW) between 2021 and 2025 because the high-voltage power lines needed to carry green energy from the windy north to the industrial south will not be ready, report Andreas Rinke and ...
Czech investor EPH’s acquisition of Vattenfall’s German lignite operations could be “a high stakes game” because lignite is “front and centre among risks facing investors from global efforts to slow climate change”, writes Gerard Wynn on the Energy & ...
Forcing global carmakers based on 130-year-old technology to switch to e-mobility will be complicated and protracted, writes Hannes Koch in a commentary for tageszeitung. He says even the Green party depends on the well-being of large companies for its ...
German energy providers have insufficient IT security against cyber attacks which could lead to large power blackouts, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports. Many providers lacked “contingency plans” for attacks by hackers and did not have a ...
The energy and coal industry is happy about the new, weakened language in the draft version of the Climate Action Plan 2050, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes. Share prices of energy companies E.ON and RWE have increased in the past days – against ...
The Local reports on plans by transmission system operators from Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands to build a giant artificial island in the middle of the North Sea where wind farms would create power for 80 million people: the North Sea Wind Power Hub ...
The European Union has initiated infringement proceedings against Germany in 16 cases for failing to correctly implement environmental directives, Dagmar Dehmer writes in the Tagesspiegel. Among the legal issues that could lead to a confrontation between ...
The federal economy ministry has proposed merging existing energy legislation in the heating and building sector into one “Building Energy Law”, writes Reinhart Bünger in Der Tagesspiegel. One of the main goals is to change the way energy efficiency in ...
The Green group in the federal parliament (Bundestag) calls for extending and raising the nuclear fuel tax beyond the end of this year, according to a parliamentary motion. “With the nuclear fuel tax, or nuclear fuel rod tax, we have a target-oriented and ...
The wording on climate policies in the final G20 communiqué was still not decided, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters at a press conference after leaders met to discuss the issue. The “large majority” of G20 members expressed their commitment ...
The final communiqué of the G20 group of leading industrialised and emerging countries clearly reflects the dissent between the United States and the other 19 members on climate protection, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a press conference after ...
Germany has received assurances that its carmakers will not be discriminated against in China, economy minister Sigmar Gabriel said in Beijing, reports Gernot Heller for Reuters. China plans to set quotas for electric cars in 2018, and some German firms ...
German climate and energy policy should be combined to overcome bitter fights between the environment ministry and the economics ministry after next year’s parliamentary election, argues sustainability expert Reinhard Loske from the University Witten ...
The nuclear repository commission has decided upon a report advising the parliament on how to proceed in the finding of a final repository for Germany’s nuclear waste. The commission, made up from parliamentarians, scientists and NGOs concluded its two ...
Several EU countries are rejecting an ambitious and binding energy efficiency goal proposed by the EU Commission in its winter package, reports Hendrik Kafsack in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). The EU Council Presidency, currently held by Malta ...
The dismantling and recycling of hundreds or even thousands of old wind turbines is set to pose a “huge problem” for Germany’s waste management system, news agency dpa reports in an article also carried by WirtschaftsWoche. The turbines’ large rotor ...
Germany is likely to miss its 2020 target of reducing CO₂ emissions by 40 percent compared to 1990, environment minister Barbara Hendricks said in an interview with the national radio station Deutschlandfunk. “I suppose we won't quite reach our goal” ...
The years 2021 to 2023 will be a turning point for e-mobility, according to Thomas Sedran, head of strategy at the VW group. “At that point, an electric car will cost the same or even be cheaper than a vehicle with a combustion engine that will stay below ...
Germany must make it easier for citizens and associations to legally challenge environmental permits, writes Michael Bauchmüller in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Failure to implement such a reform required by EU law could lead to a substantial fine. ...
It is impossible to predict the climate policy results of the G20 summit in July after the US decision to leave the Paris Agreement, said German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert in an interview with public radio broadcaster NDR 90,3. But it is ...
Intensifying regulations for energy efficiency and insulation for commercial buildings would be expensive but bring little benefit, according to a study commissioned by the German Property Federation (ZIA), writes Christian Hunziker in Die Welt. ...
Germany will release a G20 plan on addressing climate change next week, which will outline how member states can lead by example to implement the Paris Agreement, report Joe Ryan and Brian Parkin for Bloomberg. Germany was “taking cautious steps ...
Grid fees in western Germany are set to rise sharply in 2017, while fees in the east fall, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports. According to the research institute ewi ER&S, industrial enterprises connected to the high voltage grid will see ...
German utility E.ON and its fossil fuel spin-off Uniper will write-off several billion euros after Uniper’s IPO planned for September, writes Jürgen Flauger in Handelsblatt, citing company sources. This was because of unrealistically high projections for ...
China is placing a radical bet on e-mobility by tabling a proposal to drastically increase e-car sales and ensuring a high share of those vehicles will be made by Chinese auto manufacturers, report Markus Fasse, Stefan Menzel and Stephan Scheuer in ...
German climate targets for the building sector are in danger because many house owners shy away from modernising their buildings to meet higher energy standards due to the costs involved, writes Ralph Diermann in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. ...
Extreme weather events in Germany led to a slight increase in power outages in 2015, according to the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA). The average outage per consumer rose to 12.7 minutes from 12.28 minutes in 2014. “The slight increase in supply ...
Hard coal power plant closures in Germany are poised to accelerate because of decreasing profitability, report Weixin Zha und Rachel Morison for Bloomberg. “A quarter of hard coal-fired generation capacity in Europe’s largest economy may shut ahead of ...
Germany’s transport minister Alexander Dobrindt has dismissed a Green Party proposal to ban new registrations of fossil-fuel powered cars in 2030, reports Berlin daily Tagesspiegel. “A complete end to combustion engines from 2030 is totally unrealistic,” ...
Environmentalists say Germany is blocking progress among EU countries on an agreement over post-2020 reform of the Emissions Trading System (ETS), reports Ben Garside for Carbon Pulse. According to some environmental groups, the country wants to hinder ...
Winning companies of recent offshore wind auctions could not “simply walk away from the deal”- as indicated by a newspaper article- if wholesale power prices did not increase as planned, Andreas Wagner, managing director of German Offshore Wind Energy ...
The German car industry has warned against banning new conventional car registrations in 2030, claiming it would block vital innovations to make combustion engines more efficient, reports Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Major industry suppliers ZF ...
The fraction of Germany’s budget generated by taxing economic activities harmful to the environment and the climate is declining, according to calculations by NGO Green Budget Germany (FÖS). Just 4.3 percent of the public budget- less than the EU-average ...
Mobility in Germany used to be equated with auto-mobility but an increasing number of young people never own a car or even get a driving licence, Green Party MP Matthias Gastel writes in a guest article on Zeit Online. Young Germans preferred to use a ...
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is determined to lead the climate negotiations at the G20 summit in Hamburg “in a way that they serve the content and goal of the Paris Agreement”, she said in a government declaration before the federal parliament. After ...
Following the executive order by US President Donald Trump to repeal former president Barack Obama’s “Clean Power Plan,” Germany’s Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks warned the US against “making a stand against technologic and economic change,” ...
The proportion of building construction costs that falls on interior work like thermal insulation in houses is rising in Germany, Bernd Freytag writes in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Depending on the definition, thermal insulation in line with the ...
Important shifts in power relations within the energy sector occur in the course of Germany’s energy transition, according to a new research publication by Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS). “The reality is that power over certain ...
The average successful bid in Germany’s first tender for offshore windparks was “far below expectations” at 0.44 cents/kWh, according to the Federal Grid Agency (BNetzA). “Offshore wind energy emphatically demonstrates its competitiveness,” said the ...
The transport ministry plans to raise the internal standing of climate protection by setting up a new department dedicated to the issue, reports Markus Balser for Süddeutsche Zeitung. A ministry spokesperson said climate protection would play an ...
German car supplier Bosch has developed a technology to save cars’ petrol consumption by injecting water into combustion engines, reports Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The “water boost” technology reduces fuel consumption by at least four percent, and ...
The latest remarks of VW’s CEO Michael Müller on Germans’ alleged unwillingness to take advantage of the carmaker’s green product range have caused irritation and protest by politicians and mobility experts, write Stefan Menzel and Dietmar Neuerer in ...
In its 2017 first quarter results report, German renewables utility innogy warned that prospects in the British retail market had sharply deteriorated as a result of fierce competition, Reuters reports. Overall, the company posted an increase in earnings ...
The Paris Car show offers the opportunity to observe the creeping death of the diesel engine, write Thomas Fromm and Leo Klimm in Süddeutsche Zeitung. Carmakers are suddenly in a hurry to roll out e-cars, as the share of diesel sales decreases in Germany ...
Several municipal shareholders of utility RWE – among them Dortmund and Essen – will not invest in the company’s renewable subsidiary innogy at the time of its initial public offering (IPO), according to news agency Reuters. “As a provider of jobs in the ...
US e-car pioneer Tesla is now worth 53 billion dollars on the stock market, overtaking domestic market leader General Motors for the first time, reports Thomas Jahn in business daily Handelsblatt. “Slowly, Tesla is appearing in German carmakers’ rear-view ...
E.ON is positioned to overcome its current crisis and record loss following the company’s split from its conventional energy business into the subsidiary Uniper, the German utility’s CEO Johannes Teyssen told Handelsblatt Online in an interview. ...
German sports cars manufacturer Porsche AG plans to recruit more than 1,400 new employees in the Stuttgart region to develop and produce the ‘Mission E’, the company’s first all-electric sports car. "We are in direct competition with other automakers ...
Katherina Reiche, managing director of the municipal utility association VKU wants the government to establish better conditions for local utilities and keep an eye on the cost efficiency of the energy transition and security of supply in Germany, she ...
Lignite mining and power generation in eastern German region Lusatia could be profitable, Helmar Rendez, CEO of Germany’s newest lignite company Lausitz Energie Bergbau AG (LEAG) told German daily BILD in an interview. “We assume that we can earn money ...
The German solar industry needs free trade and new concepts to prevail as an important part of the energy transition, writes Ama Lorenz for EurActiv. Competition from the Asian markets has been met with antidumping regulations by the EU. This has led to ...
33 research projects presented their findings and proposals on how to transform the energy system in Germany in an environmentally friendly and socially acceptable way in Berlin yesterday. The projects, funded by the education and research ministry, focus ...
The devastating fire in London’s Grenfell Tower has sparked a debate over the risks of insulating materials in buildings- a key component of Germany’s energy transition in the construction sector- Silke Kersting writes on Handelsblatt Online. “There are ...
The cabinet of Germany’s most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has approved a new framework for lignite mining in the state, which confirms an earlier announcement to reduce originally-approved mining plans. NRW’s environment ...
Average German wholesale electricity prices fell almost nine percent to 28.96 euros per megawatt-hour last year, according to a power market review by grid operator TenneT. Redispatch volumes fell for the first time since 2013, due to a decrease in wind ...
Environment minister Barbara Hendricks receives respect abroad for Germany’s reputation as a defender of climate protection – but encounters problems at home when she tries to live up to that role, writes Michael Bauchmüller in an opinion piece for ...
The car is becoming less important to Germans, and drivers are growing more open towards alternative ways of transport, writes Dagmar Dehmer in Tagesspiegel. Two thirds of Germans wish for a better bicycle infrastructure and 61 percent of urban motorists ...
The head of Germany’s largest mining trade union IG BCE, Michael Vassiliadis, has said resistance to open pit mining in the country resembles “a civil war,” Rudolf Barnholt writes in Rheinische Post. At an event in the run-up to state elections in North ...
03 Nov 2016, 00:00 Germany's primary energy consumption is likely to remain broadly unchanged this year, according to estimates by energy market research group AG Energiebilanzen (AGEB). While data for the first nine months of the year indicate a ...
17 Feb 2016
17 Feb 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 91tv 91tv Handelsblatt / Ministry for Environment “Everything for the climate” The Ministry for Environment (BMUB) is about to enter the second phase of consultation for its Climate Action Plan 2050, and has ...
The costs for so called re-dispatch measures, necessary to keep the power grid stable in times of high power input and lacking grid capacities, have increased to 402.5 million euros in 2015 compared to 185.4 million euros in 2014, the Federal Network ...
Dutch-German transmission grid operator TenneT has posted a consolidated EBIT of 417 million euros (324 million in Germany) in the first six months of 2016 and invested 875 million euros in the grid infrastructure (642 million in Germany). The EBIT ...
The apparent success of citizens’ energy projects in Germany’s first onshore wind power auction in May was met with relief by those who feared the new support scheme might favour large companies at the expense of smaller bidders, Daniel Wetzel writes in ...
The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) has started the sixth round of auctions for large-scale ground-mounted PV arrays. It increased the auction volume to 160 megawatts because a number of winners from previous auctions said they would not realise their ...
German municipal utilities that have invested in fossil fuels over the past years – for example by modernising old coal-fired power plants – now find themselves under financial pressure in part due to the Energiewende, writes Bastian Brandau for ...
E.ON will announce a record loss next week, reports Jürgen Flauger in Handelsblatt. Company sources told the business daily the net loss will exceed 12 billion euros. With the publication of yearly results, scheduled for next Wednesday, E.ON will also ...
Sales of e-cars in Germany almost doubled in March, according to statistics by the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA). Registrations of new fully electric vehicles rose 98.5 percent year-on-year to 2.191 units (0.6 percent of total registrations), ...
The federal government “shows an alarming despondency” when it comes to its policy on a coal phase-out, writes Thorsten Knuf in an opinion piece for Frankfurter Rundschau. “Clear decisions about a long-term exit would be in the interest of the relevant ...
German PV plants learn to swim: authorities in the Bavarian municipality of Eggelstetten have allowed construction of 32 floating solar power islands that are to operate on a quarry lake and provide electricity for nearby gravel plant, Christian Sebald ...
German farmers and land owners should be compensated when their property is used for planned underground direct current power lines, the German Farmers’ Association’s (DBV) general secretary Bernhard Krüsken has said in a letter to the economy ministry, ...
19 Apr 2016
19 Apr 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Kerstine Appunn Julian Wettengel 91tv 91tv sandbag.org A “lose-lose-lose” situation The Vattenfall lignite sale to EPH is a lose for the climate, a lose for the Swedish government and a lose for German workers ...
The number of commuters has risen to an all-time high in Germany, according to an analysis by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR). Sixty percent of all employees commute to work, compared to 53 ...
Germany’s dominant utilities invest heavily in the digitalisation of the sector, reports Bernward Janzing for Handelsblatt Online. The rising share of intermittent renewables in Germany’s power mix, the desire to increase efficiency, as well as the roll ...
The G20 meeting in Hamburg is meant to address some of the most pressing global problems but many of the heads of state present at this year’s summit have a very poor record of defending human rights in their own countries, Christian Grefe writes in a ...
German automotive supplier Bosch has been accused of involvement in the VW emissions scandal, write Thomas Fromm, Max Hägler and Klaus Ott for Süddeutsche Zeitung. Several application documents in a U.S. court case show that “without the consent of the ...
According to German Solar Industry Association BSW, the industry’s business climate has reached a seven-year high, reports Brian Parkin for Bloomberg. The association said it expects solar companies’ order books to keep growing in the coming months thanks ...
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for intensifying the country’s battery-cell research efforts, the Federal Government (Bundesregierung) says in a press release. In her weekly video-podcast, Merkel says “we know that the car industry faces some ...
The German power grid urgently needs to be expanded, as it was at times stretched to its limits during the past winter, said transmission grid operator Amprion in a press release. The reasons were unscheduled plant overhauls in France and historic lows in ...
10 Aug 2016
A study by Agora Energiewende* found that rules regulating electricity markets in the countries of Central Western Europe vary widely from each other, making it difficult for the nations to optimally use the flexibility of the electricity system. ...
Of all places, the region now developing really clean diesel engines publicly withdraws confidence from the technology, comments local newspaper Stuttgarter Nachrichten. Local politicians fighting against combustion technology seem to forget which ...
Germany’s energy storage market will see significant growth between 2015 and 2021 to reach an annual value of 1.03 billion US dollars (about 0.93 billion euros), according to a new study by GTM Research. This is to be triggered in part by Germany’s ...
Germany will assist Fiji in preparing the 23 rd UN climate conference, the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUB) has said in a press release. Jochen Flasbarth, state secretary in the environment ministry, met Fiji’s Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe ...
24 Mar 2016
24 Mar 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn Julian Wettengel 91tv 91tv Spiegel Online “E-car subsidies – Schäuble dampens hopes of a buyer’s premium“ There is increasing scepticism within the federal government concerning subsidies for e-cars. Vice ...
Greenpeace Energy and its subsidiary Planet energy aim to support citizens’ wind power projects in their planning phases in light of regulatory changes brought on by the reform of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG). “The new EEG slows down the expansion of ...
In 2014, the EU already met final energy consumption target values set for 2020 and is on track to reach the target value for primary energy consumption, according to a report by the EU Commission. With a share of 19.7 percent in 2014, Germany was the ...
33 of 36 passenger cars tested on the road under real-life conditions exceeded the limits for nitrogen oxide emissions by up to nine times, according to German non-profit environmental and consumer protection association Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), which ...
German utility Uniper’s operating earnings in the first quarter 2017 fell by 41 percent compared to the same period 2016, due primarily to last year’s lucrative deal with Russian Gazprom, the company announced in a press release. This was less than what ...
“We will correct the ideological, much too fast expansion of wind energy” in North Rhine-Westphalia, said the Free Democrats’ (FDP) state chairman Christian Lindner in a video on Twitter, talking about coalition negotiations. His comments came just hours ...
Germany’s big four utilities want greater security and clarity on costs they will incur from the nuclear phase-out, and are proposing detailed contracts with the government, writes Angela Hennersdorf in Wirtschaftswoche. The contracts would establish how ...
The prospect of an improving performance has given the shares of E.ON’s conventional energy spin-off Uniper a boost, the Reuters news agency reports. Uniper expects an adjusted ‘earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization’ of 1.9 ...
Germany is a pioneer for new technologies in the energy industry, according to World Energy Council (WEC) Germany. This was underlined by the fact that digitalisation is one of the most dominant topics in Germany, according to survey results from decision ...
German utility EnBW is reducing the price for natural gas from 1 October because of low wholesale prices- despite rising grid fees, according to a press release. The company also said that it would not raise the cost for the basic supply until April 2018. ...
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the country’s renewable reform is a profound paradigm shift. “We can’t feel it yet […] but it will change the landscape considerably,” Merkel said with reference to the transition from pre-fixed feed-in tariffs to ...
The NGO Green Budget Germany (FÖS) claims recent studies commissioned by the German steel industry on the impact of the planned reform of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) were based on unrealistic assumptions which portrayed misleading “horror ...
Germany’s greenhouse gas reduction target of 80-95 percent by 2050 can't be reached with current plans, and is in itself inadequate to meet the goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement, according to a new study by Energy Watch Group (EWG). “The ...
28 Apr 2016, 00:00 The German government has decided to spend one billion euros to boost e-mobility, with the car industry contributing another 600 million euros. Starting in mid-May, buyers of pure e-cars will receive a premium of 4,000 euros, among ...
Large German environmental NGOs plan to boycott an upcoming hearing on the Climate Action Plan 2050, organised by the federal environment ministry, writes Der Spiegel. Greenpeace, WWF, Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND) and Nature and Biodiversity ...
A shortage of space is increasingly pushing the German wind power industry into forests, sparking growing conflict between green energy advocates and conservationists, writes Daniel Wetzel in Die Welt. While only about five percent of Germany’s wind ...
A majority of the German population generally supports the Energiewende, but there are different “acceptance groups” to be made out, according to a report on a survey conducted in 2015 by the Universities of Stuttgart and Münster in cooperation with ...
The high costs of Germany’s energy transition are damaging German industry's competitiveness with negative impacts on the clothing and textile sector, says Bodo Bölzle, president of textile industry association Südwesttextil, according to an article ...
12 Apr 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Kerstine Appunn Julian Wettengel Hydrogen DENEFF / PwC “10 percent turnover growth in the efficiency sector” Companies in the business of supplying energy efficiency solutions grow much faster than the rest of the economy, ...
German Volkswagen is presumably not the only company to cheat on its emissions data- and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) of US state California will examine other manufacturers, said CARB chairwoman Mary Nichols in a hearing before the German ...
Several German cities, including Berlin, Munich, Bremen, and Stuttgart, are considering banning older diesel cars in order to bring harmful nitrogen oxide emissions within EU limits, according to a survey by press agency dpa. The ban would mean only cars ...
German households will have to pay 30 euros more per year for electricity as grid operator TenneT plans to raise its grid fees by 80 percent in the new year, writes Klaus Stratmann in Handelsblatt. “The main reason for this increase is that the grid ...
Despite opposition for geostrategic, budgetary, economic and environmental reasons, the EU should go ahead with the Baltic natural gas pipeline project with Russia ‘Nord Stream 2’, writes Andreas Mihm in an opinion piece for FAZ. Imposing a construction ...
Germany must draw up a plan to exit from coal-fired power generation next year if it is to fulfill its climate targets, according to Uniper CEO Klaus Schäfer, reports Andreas Lochner for Montel. “From my point of view it is no longer a matter of whether ...
German utility E.ON is looking for cheaper alternatives to conventional wind power turbines and has identified so-called airborne wind energy as a promising option, Franz Hubik writes in Handelsblatt. According to company sources, E.ON invests three ...
The leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) dissociated itself from a paper by a conservative group within the party – “Berlin Circle” – that had criticised “increasingly aggressive policy goal setting, especially the CO₂ ...
US President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement does not mean that the country’s climate policy was already “fully outlined”, a German government official told reporters at a press briefing in Berlin, when asked about the upcoming G20 ...
Wind turbine manufacturer Nordex achieved its 2016 business targets despite an increasingly difficult market environment, news agency dpa reports in an article carried by Die Welt. But the company warned investors of a “disappointing outlook.” Despite a ...
A ban on combustion engines in the EU is likely to do more damage than good toward the goal of reducing emissions while maintaining industrial competitiveness, writes Matthias Wissmann, chairman of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), ...
Large utilities operating nuclear power plants are trying to exchange as few fuel rods as possible this year to circumvent the fuel rod tax that runs out at the end of 2016, writes Michael Bauchmüller in Süddeutsche Zeitung. “To save money, the energy ...
For the first time, union leaders from Germany's mining unions met with representatives from the annual “climate camp” and local environmentalists in the Rhenish lignite coal mining region, reports Leonie Sontheimer in taz. While all agreed that ...
Operating profits of Volkswagen Group’s core brand slipped in 2016 amid higher marketing costs related to the diesel emissions scandal and plunging demand in key markets, reports Reuters. But VW Board of Management member Frank Witter said in a press ...
German experts say the global carbon floor price proposed by government advisors in a paper for the German economy ministry is unlikely to be agreed, Dagmar Dehmer writes in Tagesspiegel. “Implementing a sufficiently high floor price seems unrealistic in ...
Environment minister Barbara Hendricks criticised her federal coalition partners for obstructing her ministry’s Climate Action Plan 2050 in an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel. “The objections of the ministries of agriculture and transport show ...
Angela Merkel’s chancellery officials have "shredded" the formerly ambitious Climate Action Plan 2050 proposal by environment minister Barbara Hendricks, Der Spiegel reports. The chancellery, which was to evaluate the draft over the summer, has ...
German oil and gas exploration company Wintershall continues its involvement with the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea, despite resistance from eastern European states, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. ...
Federal environment minister Barbara Hendricks said that the government’s Climate Action Plan 2050 will show more precise goals than her ministry’s final version, which is now in the consultation process with other ministries. “We will have to put back ...
The EU Commission missed its opportunity to introduce more ambitious climate targets with its proposal package for a low-carbon economy, writes Joachim Wille in an opinion piece in Frankfurter Rundschau. “The EU Commission pretends […] that ‘Paris’ never ...
German officials said they regretted state-controlled French energy supplier EDF’s decision to postpone its decision over the decommissioning of the 40-year-old Fessenheim nuclear plant until at least next year, Spiegel Online reports. Rita Schwarzelühr ...
The financial consequences of the German nuclear exit are “dramatic” for German utility EnBW, writes Bernd Freytag in an opinion piece in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “Because of the low-interest phase, EnBW must set aside additional reserves for ...
The German government will extend current tax breaks for natural gas used as fuel because it wants natural gas to play a role in the Energiewende in the mobility sector, the state secretary for energy, Rainer Baake, said ahead of the round table on ...
The reform of the Renewable Energy Act puts the Energiewende at a crossroads, writes political scientist and energy analyst Arne Jungjohann on environmental news website China Dialogue. “So far, citizens, communities and new investors have been the ...
E.ON’s record loss is the result of massive management mistakes, according to Greenpeace. “Anyone who ignores the energy transition for many years, and instead bets on fossil energies, shouldn’t be surprised about huge losses,” said Greenpeace energy ...
Germany will have to make a collective effort to expand the country’s power grid in the coming years, said Chancellor Angela Merkel at the 8th Energy Policy Dialogue by CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group in the German Bundestag. “I predict that we will need to ...
The Munich-based Memedo, which focuses on sales of energy storage systems tripled its sales of power storage systems in 2015 to around 1500 units, Memedo’s head Daniel Schmitt says in Windkraft-Journal.de. Its rise to the top-seller of such systems was ...
Fuel cells are no longer a major part of Daimler’s plans, reports Fortune. CEO Dieter Zetsche said declining battery costs have made fuel cell vehicles uncompetitive with electric cars, according to a report by news site Smart2Zero. Zetsche’s statements ...
Former finance minister Hans Eichel advocates for an ecologic tax reform in Germany, he told Frankfurter Rundschau in an interview. This will raise the share of environmental taxes in the country’s total amount of taxes and levies, he says. “Above all, ...
Fuel cell electric vehicles could make a significant contribution to reducing CO 2 emissions in the transport sector, according to a study by oil company Shell and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. “In 2050, 113 million fuel ...
04 Apr 2016
04 Apr 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Julian Wettengel Sandbag “Top 10 European polluters still dominated by German lignite” “Four out of five of the biggest polluters in Europe are still German lignite plants,” reports UK-based sandbag. The not-for-profit ...
High electricity feed-in from renewables increases the chance of negative power prices, according to a new study by Rhineland-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research (RWI Essen). “Reaching ambitious renewable energy targets increases the frequency of ...
It remains uncertain whether Mercedes’ and Porsche’s hometown Stuttgart will introduce diesel driving bans next year as currently planned, according to the regional government. Green state premier Winfried Kretschmann told local newspapers the bans were “ ...
The German car industry has not given up yet on its highly profitable combustion engine, reports Sebastian Schaal for business magazine WirtschaftsWoche. “Electric propulsion remains Plan B, because Plan A is simply working too well,” he wrote. At an ...
Germany and the US state of California are teaming up to tackle climate change, after US President Donald Trump announced that the US would leave the Paris Climate Agreement. California’s Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. and Germany’s environment minister ...
Germany’s largest carmaker Volkswagen (VW) plans to team up with China’s Anhui Jianghuai Automobile (JAC) on an electric car joint venture, news agency Bloomberg and other media report. VW said in a statement that its “top priority will be to develop zero ...
The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) launched Germany’s first onshore wind tender, introduced by last year’s reform of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG), the agency says in a press release. Tenders affect facilities with an installed capacity larger than 750 ...
The tenant electricity draft law by the German economy ministry (BMWi) is “an overdue step towards more equality” among the country’s power consumers, Bernward Janzing writes in a commentary for taz. It allowed tenants not to pay the entire renewable ...
Nowhere in Germany are the effects of the energy transition more visible than in the Northwest, the centre of the country’s wind power industry, writes Volker Kühn in Nordwest-Zeitung. “With wind power’s stormy expansion on and offshore, the region has ...
German utility EnBW denied allegations by Germany's Wind Energy Association (BWE) that its zero-support offshore wind bid was “risk-oriented” and only possible because EnBW was largely state-owned, writes Daniel Wetzel in Die Welt. The allegations ...
German utility company E.ON has launched a new onshore wind park in the United States (Texas) with an installed capacity of 200 megawatts. The 112 turbines at Colbeck’s Corner can produce electricity for 64,000 households, the company said in a press ...
The use of renewable energy in electricity, heating and transport saved Germany around 8.16 billion euros in fossil fuel imports in 2015 compared to 1990 levels, according to a report by Germany’s Institute for Applied Ecology (Öko Institute), ...
Vattenfall will invest about three billion euros in Germany over the coming years, said the company’s president and CEO Magnus Hall in an interview with Handelsblatt. “There is significant growth potential in cities like Berlin or Hamburg, for example in ...
The natural gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 from Russia to Germany bolster's the role of Russian supplier Gazprom, thereby harming competition and supply security in the region, according to the European Commission. Tom Weingärtner writes in Energie & ...
Germany is likely to miss several key energy transition targets- including goals on the affordability of electricity, greenhouse gas emissions and primary energy and power consumption- while costs keep rising, according to consultancy McKinsey’s bi-annual ...
The world’s first long-distance, hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell-propelled train in batch production will be in operation on German tracks by 2017, writes Nikolaus Doll in Die Welt. French rail transport company Alstom today presents its ‘Corodia iLint’ model ...
Talks between the federal government and the big four utilities E.ON, RWE EnBW and Vattenfall on nuclear waste storage are not as close to conclusion as a report by Börsen-Zeitung suggested, writes Reuters. The stock market newspaper had reported that the ...
The government of southern Germany’s state of Baden-Württemberg, home to carmaker Daimler, wants to ban old diesel cars in cities, report Josef Kelnberger und Max Hägler in Süddeutsche Zeitung. Only a “ blue badge ” could reduce nitrogen oxide levels ...
Several automakers claimed lower carbon dioxide emissions for new cars than was actually the case, according to a 2011 study by the Federal Highway Research Institute (Bast), writes Handelsblatt Global Edition. For six models included in the study, CO 2 ...
The election programme drafts by the Green Party and Free Democrats (FDP) indicate areas of agreement- which would open up federal coalition possibilities – but there are considerable differences in energy and climate policy, writes Stefan Braun in ...
Despite the lacklustre success of the buyers’ premium for e-cars in Germany, delivery times for electric vehicles remain long, reports Thomas Imhof in Die Welt. Buyers of the global best-seller Nissan Leaf had to wait up to six months until recently, the ...
Even though the government put plans to enable diesel bans in German cities on ice last month, experts believe diesel engines are doomed, reports Henning Peitsmeier in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Elmar Kades, director at business consultancy Alix ...
Swedish state owned utility Vattenfall’s sale of its German lignite coal operations is facing a new delay, writes Jürgen Flauger in the Handelsblatt. The necessary approval by the European Commission was pending and will probably not be ready before ...
Sales of large battery systems for solar installations are on the rise despite a decline in new photovoltaic (PV) installations, Walther Rosenberger writes in Stuttgarter Nachrichten. According to the German Solar Association, the number of installed ...
After the British vote to leave the European Union, the EU’s energy union plans are at risk of being “put on the back-burner until more pressing issues are worked out,” writes Sara Stefanini for Politico. In light of the UK’s presidency of the Council of ...
A new 300 million euro government subsidy programme designed to promote electric car charging stations in Germany is bearing fruit, according to Handelsblatt. Several utilities are preparing to install several thousand charging stations, whose number ...
The current draft of the environment ministry’s Climate Action Plan 2050 showed that Chancellor Angela Merkel – weakened by the refugee crisis – avoided a dispute over climate targets with the economic wing of her party, writes Bernhard Pötter in an ...
Climate protection is part of the Green Party’s “core profile”, which makes it a prime campaign topic in the upcoming federal elections, scheduled for autumn, Winfried Kretschmann, state premier of Baden Wurttemberg told Berliner Zeitung. “I don’t see ...
Strategies by German households to save energy are very different across the country’s regions, a survey by energy service provider Techem has shown. “People in Saarland are national champions when it comes to using energy saving lamps,” Techem says in a ...
The German government is sticking to its goal of bringing one million electric vehicles onto the road by 2020, even though Chancellor Angela Merkel believes it will likely be missed. “The government and the National Platform for Electric Mobility are ...
At more than 40 percent, the lion’s share of the roughly 1.8 million tonnes of palm oil consumed in Germany is used for diesel fuel, according to a study by WWF Germany. “To solve the palm oil problem, one would need to improve cultivation conditions and ...
Little good will come of Germany’s Climate Action Plan 2050, writes Jan Heidtmann in an op-ed for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. If used as a basis for implementing the Paris Agreement, the plan would see the country ending the sale of conventional fossil ...
The VW Group subsidiary Audi apparently used software manipulation to stay below US emissions limits in its diesel engines for years, even though it has been denying this charge, reports Süddeutsche Zeitung. An engineer wrote an email to managers as early ...
Germany’s Economy Ministry (BMWi) aims to launch an “energy transition in transportation” by financially supporting research and development projects on sector coupling and electrification in the sector, the ministry said in a press release. The BMWi ...
Foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel wants to “demonstratively foster multilateral cooperation” with the G20 foreign minister meeting in Bonn- but concrete outcomes are unlikely, writes Stefan Braun in Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Mission saving the earth’s ...
Europe’s solar industry should think about cooperating with China instead of placing import tariffs on Chinese PV products, writes Stephan Scheuer in an op-ed for Handelsblatt. The tariffs disadvantage consumers in Europe and slow down the solar expansion ...
Russian gas and oil producer Gazprom plans to axe nearly every second job at its German subsidiary, Jürgen Flauger writes in Handelsblatt Global Edition. Apart from cutting Berlin staff from 230 to 130, Gazprom Germania was also “replacing German ...
Robert Habeck, state Energiewende minister of Schleswig-Holstein, claims the federal government plans to limit wind power development in northern Germany due to lagging grid expansion by establishing “grid congestion zones”, while nuclear and coal-fired ...
A pilot study suggests wind turbines attract bats, reports science news service idw. “They seem to appear particularly appealing to female noctule bats in early summer,” the report says. A researcher said the bats might mistake turbines for dead trees, ...
08 Mar 2017
Between 1.5 and 2.8 million birds die each year in Germany from colliding with high-voltage overhead power lines, according to a report published by Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU). “In light of the transmission grid expansion needed for ...
German car manufacturer Daimler has presented its first prototype for an electric transporter. The 26-tonne truck will have a range of 200 km on one battery charge and is envisaged to be used to transport goods into city centers. Daimler wants to start ...
When it comes to climate protection, there is hardly any other sector where reality lags as far behind necessity as in the area of insulating buildings, according to the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW). In a collection of analyses, the ...
Germany will help Iran implememt its national climate protection targets, the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUB) says in a press release. During a visit to Teheran, German state secretary Jochen Flasbarth also aims to strengthen cooperation on ...
Stefan Kapferer, head of Germany’s largest energy industry association BDEW (Association of Energy and Water Industries), says the country’s next government would be prudent to repeal the electricity tax. The tax "can no longer be justified" and ...
Germany has been ranked third in the latest Electric Vehicle Index by consultancy McKinsey for being one of the most important manufacturing countries for electric cars. China ranked highest, followed by Japan. By 2021 around one-third of new electric ...
25 Jan 2016
25 Jan 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 91tv 91tv Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung “Support for wind power in windless locations” Current proposals for the reform of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) from Economy and Energy Minister Sigmar Gabriel ...
With about 100,000 new solar heaters in 2016, a total of 2.2 million solar heating systems are now installed in Germany, the German Solar Industry Association (BSW) and the Association of Heating Industry (BDH) say in a joint press release. “The ...
08 Mar 2016
08 Mar 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 91tv 91tv RWE/Bloomberg RWE posts second net loss in two years Germany’s biggest power producer RWE posted its second net loss in three years, reports Tino Andresen for Bloomberg. The group’s net loss ...
Chancellor Angela Merkel, economy minister Sigmar Gabriel and environment minister Barbara Hendricks have agreed on the Climate Action Plan 2050, which they had heavily debated in the run-up to the COP22 climate talks in Marrakesh, writes news agency ...
Prices for solar PV installations have gone down again in the latest round of tenders in Germany, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) said. Twenty-five bids for a total of 130 megawatt auctioned capacity were successful in the fifth round – all of them ...
24 May 2016
24 May 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang 91tv 91tv Süddeutsche Zeitung “People with their own power supply will have to pay” Changes in power taxation planned by the German finance ministry could finish off business models based on renewable power ...
Canadian energy infrastructure group Enbridge has bought a 49.9 percent stake in EnBW's 1.8 billion euro North Sea offshore park Hohe See, reports Maria Sheahan for Reuters. With a planned capacity of about 500 megawatts (MW), Hohe See is one of ...
06 Apr 2016
06 Apr 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn Julian Wettengel 91tv 91tv Ministry for the Environment and Nuclear Safety Using nuclear energy is an ‘aberration’ The nuclear catastrophe of Chernobyl almost 30 years ago showed that using nuclear energy ...
16 Jan 2017
The subsidies for natural gas introduced with the new combined heat and power regulation (CHP) put pressure on German hard coal-fired power generation in 2016, according to German Coal Importer Association (VDKi), reports Dow Jones Newswires. Consumption ...
Growing public opposition to wind parks near residential areas is endangering the support needed for the energy transition, according to an article in Welt am Sonntag. Many Germans who live near wind parks “no longer experience the Energiewende as a ...
Climate protection targets should play a “significantly bigger role” in federal transport minister Alexander Dobrindt’s transport infrastructure plan 2030, Maria Krautzberger, president of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), said in an interview with ...
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) with the support of the German environment ministry (BMUB) is holding a workshop on integrating higher shares of renewable energy in the island nation of Cuba in the country’s capital Havana. According to ...
Germany is far behind in sales of electric vehicles compared to its neighbours and countries around the world, Die Welt reports. While new registrations for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids in Germany made up just 0.6 percent in the first half of ...
Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has ignited a storm with the recent publication of its Green Paper on increasing energy efficiency, Philipp Vetter writes in Die Welt. The paper proposed a flexible energy tax to counteract ...
Environment minister Barbara Hendricks wants to have her Climate Action Plan 2050 approved before the climate conference in Morocco in November, “to send a signal to the global community”, she writes in a guest commentary in the Handelsblatt. “What ...
Germany’s recently introduced electric vehicle subsidy programme, which went into effect 18 May has so far turned out to be a flop, according to experts, Karl-Heinz Büschemann writes in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Financed by the government and the German ...
While the energy transition is one of most important political projects in Germany, the end does not justify the means, Martin Wanninger writes in the Passauer Neue Presse. Greatest efforts are called for to achieve greater energy efficiency, but not ...
German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected the suggestion that German carmaker VW’s emissions cheating was a “failure of government”. The failure was with VW, not the German state, she said in a hearing before an inquiry committee of the federal parliament. ...
Germany’s Energiewende is on track in areas such as extending renewables, employment, and securing power supply. But other goals- such as reducing power consumption and carbon emissions, and the limit on costs- seem increasingly out of reach, consultancy ...
Germany’s membership in the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) is a paradox since the country’s decision to phase out nuclear power in 2000, writes Joachim Wille in Frankfurter Rundschau. Provisions of the membership contract still called on ...
14 Apr 2016
14 Apr 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn Julian Wettengel 91tv 91tv dpa / Frankfurter Rundschau “Christian Democrats put the breaks on renewable development” Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party wants to make changes to the ...
A socially acceptable coal exit in Germany is possible and could be financed through the CO₂-emissions trading earnings, according to a report by enervis energy advisors GmbH, commissioned by the German service sector trade union ver.di. “Our proposal ...
The Green Party has developed a concrete plan for phasing out coal in Germany, writes Michael Bauchmüller in Süddeutsche Zeitung. “In the coming legislative term, we aim at introducing the end of the coal era in Germany irreversibly and with planning ...
The record loss of over 16 billion euros announced by German utility E.ON increases doubts about the company’s survival, Angela Hennersdorf and Andreas Macho write in business paper WirtschaftsWoche. CEO Johannes Teyssen’s 400-million euro rescue scheme, ...
A large-scale shift to e-cars would drastically reduce the number of people employed in Germany’s car manufacturing sector, Richard Rother writes in taz. “ Replacing cars with combustion engines with e-cars will eliminate a large part of value creation,” ...
Bavarian storage manufacturer sonnen will offer a free power flat rate to consumers that install the company’s integrated solar PV and home storage systems, sonnen announced in a press release. The flat rates will be financed with revenues the company ...
Those with a higher income use more energy and resources, regardless whether they consider themselves to be environmentally aware or not, the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) has found in a study. “A higher income is often used for bigger cars, larger ...
05 Feb 2016
05 Feb 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 91tv 91tv Die Zeit “Billions from the state for coal-fired power plants” State development bank KfW supports coal-fired power plants and other coal-related projects abroad through its subsidiary IPEX, with ...
After the rejection of E.ON’s damages claims by a regional court in Hanover, hope for the big German utilities lies with the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe which is yet to decide related lawsuits, writes Andreas Mihm in an opinion piece in ...
A giant sailing vessel could become a new means of transport for car exports from Germany to America and Asia, reports Birger Nicolai in Die Welt. VW, Daimler and BMW are all looking into the possibility to get a contract for the 180 m long “Ecoliner” ...
In many countries around the world, solar has become the cheapest source of energy – a fact that produces winners and losers among German companies, report Franz Hubik and Stephan Scheuer in the business daily Handelsblatt. While engineering consultancy ...
Stuttgart had run out of options to cut nitrogen dioxide pollution, a poison that makes people ill and even kills them, writes Jan Heidtmann in a commentary for Süddeutsche Zeitung. He argues the state government also wants to put pressure on federal ...
Germany is ranked 5 th on the Worldbank’s Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE) index that compares states’ policies and regulations in the energy sector. Countries are scored using 27 indicators in the three pillars energy access, energy ...
Power consumption in Germany can differ substantially from region to region, price comparison website Check24 said in a press release. “Families from the Saarland consume 25 percent more power than families from Saxony,” the website says, adding that ...
Carbon emissions in Germany will only be reduced if the country commits itself in earnest to “ a turnaround in transport policy ”, education minister Johanna Wanka told Frankfurter Rundschau in an interview. Wanka said she had made research on e-mobility ...
Russian and German energy companies Gazprom and Uniper confirmed their intention to bring the contentious offshore gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 into operation on schedule, Gazprom said in a press release. In a separate article, Financial Times (FT) reported ...
German transport and environmental association Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VDC), which promotes sustainable mobility, on Tuesday refused to publish its annual top ten list of most environmentally friendly car models due to the ongoing diesel emissions ...
Researchers at BioConsult SH, ARSU, IfAÖ and University of Bielefeld have published a study on the effects of wind turbines on birds and how to lower the risk of collision. The question of whether protected bird species are threatened by wind turbines is ...
10 May 2016
10 May 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Kerstine Appunn 91tv 91tv Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung “The country, a wind industry park” "Rapeseed, maize, and wind monocultures" in the German countryside reveal what the solar age looks like, ...
The Association of Energy Market Innovators (BNE) and the renewable power provider LichtBlick welcome plans by the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) to lower grid fees by decreasing the return on equity operators invest in Germany’s grid infrastructure, ...
A reform of the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) could make the scheme more effective without endangering the competitiveness of the European raw materials industry, a report by international researchers, including the German Institute for ...
The decentralised energy system based largely on renewable sources could change the way consumers pay for power, Eva Augsten reports in Technology Review. Power and heat from wind and solar cause hardly any operating costs, but instead need a relatively ...
The German Green Party is polling at its lowest nationwide level in 15 years and risks falling below the five-percent-threshold required to stay in parliament, Robert Rossmann writes in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In several recent polls, the Greens’ ...
Creditors of insolvent energy company Windreich are set to receive a major haircut, Handelsblatt Global Edition reports. According to a report by insolvency administrator Holger Blümle, investors will see a return of just 30.9 percent of their original ...
29 Feb 2016
29 Feb 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Rheinische Post “Union demands lignite fund” Mining union IG BCE argues Germany will need lignite power production until 2047 and should create a fund to finance the technology after it stops earning money in about 15 ...
Negotiations between the four nuclear operators and the German government are at full speed, reports Antje Höning in Rheinische Post. Insiders told the author the government wanted a cabinet decision in August so the financing of the nuclear exit is put ...
Despite government-backed financial incentives, electric vehicles have been slow to take off in Germany, Die Welt reports. The government’s ambitious goal to have a million electric cars on the streets by 2020 has now become unattainable, according to ...
The market power of Germany’s four large electricity suppliers has decreased significantly over the past years, according to the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) and the Federal Cartel Office’s Monitoring Report 2016 on the developments in the German ...
About one in two Germans would consider investing in community renewable energy projects, a representative survey of 1,990 participants by Swiss University of St. Gallen found. While solar PV and wind power projects are the preferred types, investment ...
The compromise restricting hydraulic fracturing in Germany is a big success for the technique’s critics, writes Malte Kreutzfeldt in an opinion piece in die tageszeitung. “A complete ban of all kinds of fracturing, as the opponents demand, was politically ...
While 69 percent of residents in eastern Germany still support the country’s energy transition in principle, this figure is well below the 78 percent that expressed approval in 2015, Die Welt reports, citing a study by energy provider enviaM and Leipzig ...
Until now, tenants in Germany had to pay the renewable energy surcharge of 6.35 cents per kilowatt-hour that finances the state-guaranteed price, or feed-in tariff, for producers of renewable energy even if the building they live in is installed with a ...
EU energy ministers are attending an informal meeting in Bratislava this week to discuss steering and monitoring mechanisms for the European Energy Union, sustainable financing structures for low-carbon technologies, energy prices and energy supply ...
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has published its 2016 International Energy Efficiency Scorecard. Germany is ranked as the world leader in energy efficiency, followed by Italy, Japan, France and the UK. The US came 8 th. The ...
E.ON’s spin-off Uniper, slated for a stock market listing soon, has posted its first half-year financial results, reporting a 3.9 billion euro loss. The hit is a result of value adjustments and provisions for impending losses of 3.8 billion euros that E ...
The German government is paying more attention to its internal coalition agreement from 2013 than to the Paris Climate Agreement, Dagmar Dehmer writes in an op-ed for the Tagesspiegel. This is why the reformed Renewable Energy Act could does not support ...
Germany and Australia have signed a letter of intent to intensify cooperation in the areas of energy and resources, the German economy ministry said in a press release. Rainer Baake, German state secretary in the economy ministry, and his Australian ...
With a share price increase of 36 percent, RWE’s shares come in second place of the top stocks in Germany’s benchmark DAX index this year. This is despite the utility’s struggle after Germany’s decision to phase-out nuclear power and the rise of ...
With more and more renewables needed, the conflict between climate and nature protection grows - and simply “saving energy” will not be sufficient, writes Ralf Nestler in an opinion piece for Tagesspiegel. “Already, the limit of what can be asked of the ...
An extensive underground thermal heat storage system proposed in Hamburg could supply roughly a quarter of the city’s heating needs with waste heat from industrial and power plants, Jeffrey Michel reports for energypost.eu. “If successful, it would make ...
Utilities like E.ON once thought that they could meticulously plan the decommissioning and dismantling of their nuclear power plants- but the reality is proving this approach wrong, writes Bernward Janzing in the taz. E.ON found “unexpected contamination” ...
A survey by insurer CosmosDirekt and research group Forsa suggests many German car owners are open-minded when it comes to e-mobility. The report found that 57 percent of German car owners could imagine switching to a plug-in or pure electric car for the ...
So far just 25 percent of the winning bids in Germany’s first auction for ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, held in April 2015, have been realised, Sandra Enkhardt writes in PV Magazine. Of the projects selected in the country’s second ...
The G20 foreign ministers will have to talk about global warming at their meeting in Bonn, as climate change increasingly is a threat to world peace, writes Christoph Bals of environmental NGO Germanwatch in a guest article for Zeit Online. “The intensity ...
18 Dec 2015
18 Dec 2015, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 91tv 91tv Federation of German Consumer Organisations “Consumers remain paymasters of the Energiewende in 2016” A new survey shows that two thirds of German consumers are sceptical that the government can ...
German carmakers Volkswagen, Daimler, and BMW are likely to build more than 106,000 e-cars this year, an increase of 54 percent compared to last year, according to a forecast by business consultancy PwC. Production of hybrid models by German carmakers ...
27 Nov 2015
27 Nov 2015, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 91tv 91tv dpa Criticism of environment minister’s ‘solo’ push for coal exit North-Rhine Westphalia’s state premier Hannelore Kraft and her economy minister Garrelt Duin have criticised Federal Environment ...
Germany’s economy ministry (BMWi), together with industry associations VSM and VDMA, has started an initiative intended to implement energy transition in maritime traffic, news agency Reuters reports. At the 10th National Maritime Conference in Hamburg, ...
Germans are less and less keen about electric cars, Bild Zeitung reports. According to a survey by mobile.de, 15.7 percent of people said they were interested in buying an e-car, compared to 16 percent in the 2015 survey, Bild writes. In the countryside, ...
01 Dec 2015, 00:00 Day 2 at the UN climate conference: Negotiators begin their day-to-day work / Finance pledges for forests and renewables / New guidelines for climate compatible investment rules Expert BMU- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature ...
Germany's coalition government of Christian and Social Democrats has neglected topics important to German industry, writes Ulrich Grillo, president of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), in a guest commentary for Die Welt. Among other examples ...
23 Feb 2016
23 Feb 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Kerstine Appunn 91tv 91tv Die Welt “Nuclear giants buy their way out for 18 billion” The expert commission on financing the nuclear clean-up will suggest to the government that utilities transfer their ...
Tesla is confident it will enter the German business fleet market on a large scale with its upcoming mid-range e-car Model 3, according to Jochen Rudat, who heads the company’s operations in Germany. “After talks with many German companies, I’m very ...
03 May 2016
03 May 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Kerstine Appunn Julian Wettengel 91tv 91tv BDEW “Energiewende continues to be major topic for population” 93 percent of Germans believe the Energiewende is important or very important, according to a survey by ...
The first truly fundamental reform of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) was long overdue, writes Andreas Mihm in a commentary for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The law has long fulfilled its purpose of making green power competitive and has become too ...
The transport ministry has instructed a commission to determine ethical principles for driverless cars, according to a report in Süddeutsche Zeitung. Transport minister Alexander Dobrindt told mass daily Bild two of the fundamental ideas guiding the work ...
The Energiewende cannot succeed without a heating transition, because the heat market is the most important final energy consumption sector in Germany, writes the government-owned financing institution KfW’s research division in a paper. However, the ...
RWE AG’s second-quarter loss narrowed by 22 percent after an improved performance in the German utility’s power plant business and cost cuts, reports Tino Andresen for Bloomberg. The Essen-based company reduced its adjusted net loss to 259 million euros ...
Driving cars might be very dear to large parts of the German population, but it is not a fundamental right and can be harmful to health and environment, writes Svenja Bergt in an opinion piece in tageszeitung (taz). Instead of half-hearted diesel bans, ...
Germany risks missing its climate targets in the building sector “unless something drastic is done,” Joachim Wille writes in Frankfurter Rundschau. An energy-efficient upgrading of the country’s building stock on average could increase energy savings by ...
The diesel emissions scandal forces German carmaker Audi to cut costs and increase efficiency “wherever possible”, writes Henning Peitsmeier for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Many investments “which would have easily passed any budget meeting of ...
Despite a new advertising campaign, efficiency measures in Germany aren’t successful, particularly in the building sector, Michael Bauchmüller and Benedikt Müller write in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In order to achieve its climate targets, the country would ...
21 Jan 2016
21 Jan 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 91tv 91tv Süddeutsche Zeitung / Greenpeace Energy “Flawed subsidies” Britain is planning a different kind of energy transition, writes Björn Finke in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. While they want to shut down all ...
Green power-utility innogy has assured its shareholders that it will raise its profits and make high dividend payouts, Frankfurter Rundschau reports. “We want to make money and pay dividends,” CEO Peter Terium said at the first annual stockholders’ ...
16 Dec 2015
16 Dec 2015, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 91tv 91tv VDMA / BWE Costs for wind power reduced Power from wind turbines in 2016/2017 will be 12 percent cheaper than in 2012/2013, according to a study commissioned by the German Engineering Federation ...
German steel manufacturer Thyssen-Krupp launched a research project on using steel mill gases like nitrogen, methane or hydrogen oxide as resources for chemical materials, writes Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The project, dubbed Carbon2Chem, showed how ...
To secure the transport of large quantities of renewable power to the main consumption centres in Europe, an extension of the current electricity grid is needed, according to the ten-year network development plan (TYNDP) published by European Network of ...
Today’s judgement by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on import tariffs on Chinese pv modules will determine the course of a possible resurrection for the industry in Germany and other EU countries, Michael Bauchmüller writes in Süddeutsche ...
Efficiency investments in buildings have a significant impact on real estate prices, according to an analysis by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). But the impact on rented apartments is smaller than on freehold property, reducing the ...
German utility innogy will assist the country’s telecommunication heavyweight Telekom in expanding its broadband internet access, Ina Karabasz and Jürgen Flauger write in Handelsblatt Global Edition. Initially reluctant to rely on partners to develop high ...
The envrionmental organisation Nabu has criticised the German government for sacrificing the protection of nature and wildlife to meet its energy transition and climate protection goals, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports. In a statement on ...
Germany’s Renewable Energy Act (EEG) could produce results that go against its intended purpose of cutting emissions by supporting low-carbon energy generation, EurActiv.de reports. The EEG, combined with the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS), caused an ...
Tesla CEO Elon Musk defended the company’s autopilot system after the German Federal Motor Transport Authority said it would not have approved the beta-phase of Tesla's autopilot, according to manager magazin. There was a “misunderstanding of what & ...
The chief of the German chancellery, Peter Altmaier, says Germany can still meet its own national 2020 climate protection goals despite increased emissions in 2016. He told public TV channel ZDF’s show “Berlin direkt” that he would “ not give up on the ...
Deutsche WindGuard has published offshore wind statistics for the first six months of 2016. Compared to the first half of 2015, less offshore wind turbines (OWT) were added to the grid. Forty-three OWT with a capacity of 258 megawatt (MW) first fed into ...
The federal government’s “climate rhetoric” runs contrary to recent plans and regulatory reforms, writes Joachim Wille in an opinion piece for Frankfurter Rundschau. Cabinet decided on a draft law to ratify the Paris Climate Agreement and Chancellor ...
German electric utilities company EnBW has asked the authorities for permission to shut down and dismantle its two remaining nuclear power stations, M. Bauchmüller and V. Bernau write in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Jörg Michels, head of EnBW’s nuclear power ...
In a short Q&A for Bloomberg, Weixin Zha explains Germany’s plans to split the common power price zone with its neighbour Austria in July 2018. Zha gives a brief overview of the reasons, motivations, possible consequences and issues surrounding ...
East Germany could produce more energy from renewable sources than it uses, but the region’s full potential remains untapped, the Reiner Lemoine Institut research organisation says in a press release. Wind energy production in particular could still be ...
The government of the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein wants a fairer distribution of grid fees in Germany and will introduce a draft law in the council of federal state governments (Bundesrat). “The draft is to enable the federal government to bring ...
Green and left-wing politicians in the Bundestag and state governments want to extend the nuclear fuel rod tax, Bernward Janzing reports in taz. The tax is payable by nuclear power station operators whenever they use new fuel elements in their reactors ...
The Heinrich Böll Foundation has launched a website to accompany the German G20 presidency. The site offers feature articles, explanatory pieces, interactive maps and factsheets on the G20 issues. “Well-founded information are crucial for honest public ...
Citizens, politicians, and the industry all agree that Germany’s energy transition must continue- but a clear plan on exactly how does not exist, writes Joachim Wille in Frankfurter Rundschau. “How central or decentral should the Energiewende be designed? ...
Europe’s car industry will be able to continue using exhaust emission systems for which exceeding the exhaust values is in many cases permitted, Nikolaus Doll writes in Die Welt. The German government has failed to have the part of an EU regulation ...
