News

As of April 1st, Lower Saxony has granted Vermilion Energy Germany three permits for the commercial exploration of hydrocarbons. These include the “Unterweser I” field in the districts of Osterholz, Rotenburg (Wümme), and Verden, east of Bremen. This does not yet mean that production or drilling will commence. However, the company has been granted the […]

Rising diesel prices are increasingly putting public transport and municipal services in Germany under pressure. (welt: 30.03.26) Particularly in rural areas, transport associations are warning of a wave of bankruptcies among bus companies, while municipalities like Eisleben are already considering concrete restrictions. The trigger is the sharp rise in fuel costs, which is overwhelming many

Germany is pushing ahead with the transformation of its energy system, aiming to source almost all of its electricity from renewable sources by 2035 and achieve complete climate neutrality by 2045. The political course focuses primarily on wind and solar energy, but criticism from the economic and industrial sectors is growing significantly. The trigger is

In Brussels on Tuesday, EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen ruled out a change of course despite the war in Iran and significantly rising energy costs. The EU will neither reverse its ban on Russian fossil fuels nor slow down the transition to renewable energies. The debate was triggered by new price shocks on the energy

Following the disruptions in fuel and gas prices, the energy crisis is now hitting the electricity market with full force. In Germany, electricity contracts for the coming May were traded at €86.80 per megawatt-hour on the EEX power exchange on March 31. In France, the comparable price at the same time was only €22.06. This

At least four oil tankers loaded with diesel changed course at the end of March on their way to Europe and are now heading for Asian buyers. The ships were originally intended to carry cargo for the European market. Instead, traders reacted quickly to higher prices in Asia. This is due to a shift in

Scientists at Fraunhofer Austria have developed a prototype in the “iLESS” research project that calculates the economic viability of private battery storage systems for photovoltaic installations. The core question is which storage size is cost-effective under real-world conditions. However, the evaluation of test households reveals a clear risk: many private storage systems are oversized and

The risk of insolvency for new wind power projects in Germany is increasing significantly because negative electricity prices are on the rise, the planned reform of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) will reduce subsidies, grid operators will be allowed to refuse new connections, and compensation for grid-related shutdowns is slated to be eliminated. At

At its Berlin location, the energy startup Enpal dissolved its entire customer service department for photovoltaic systems during a town hall meeting on Tuesday, laying off 97 employees with immediate effect. The move stems from a restructuring of the service model, which had been in preparation for about a year and involved replacing previous responsibilities

Taiwan Power Company has submitted an application to the Nuclear Safety Council for a new operating license for the Maanshan nuclear power plant. The plant’s two units were already taken offline in July 2024 and May 2025, respectively, because their 40-year operating licenses expired and Taiwan’s nuclear phase-out took effect. The impetus for this new

Battery manufacturer Varta is cutting 150 jobs at its Nördlingen site. The affected subsidiary is Micro Production, whose employees received the news before Christmas. Following announcements in recent weeks, the layoffs have now been issued. The reason is a significant decline in sales figures and revised customer forecasts. This has led to a drop in

In Dresden, the dispute over new wind farm areas is intensifying because the Regional Planning Association has designated priority areas in Rossendorf, the Dresden Heath, and the Schönfeld Highlands. Rossendorf is particularly contentious, as the planned wind farms extend directly to the campus of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and in some cases even onto its

The European Commission plans to establish its own intelligence service and is actively pushing the project forward. The new structure is intended to be part of a comprehensive security strategy and will report directly to Ursula von der Leyen. The impetus for this move comes from a tense geopolitical and geoeconomic environment, increasing activity by

In Germany and Europe, energy policy decisions continue to have repercussions today because governments have shut down nuclear power plants or rejected new construction projects, even though electricity demand is rising due to industry, electric vehicles, and heating applications. These decisions were often based on flawed reasoning regarding supposedly unaffordable costs, persistently unresolved issues of

The German government has enabled the decommissioning of gas networks through an amendment to the Energy Industry Act. Network operators will now be permitted to take their lines out of service if they no longer see a climate-friendly use for them. This is part of Germany’s energy transition plan to achieve climate neutrality by 2045.