German industry has welcomed the controversial energy laws proposed by Federal Economics Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU). “With the amendment to the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) and the grid package, the federal government is providing important and long-overdue impetus for an efficient and competitive energy system,” Holger Lösch, Deputy Director General of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), stated on Wednesday. The reform of the Renewable Energy Sources Act and the so-called grid package were scheduled to be adopted by the federal cabinet later.
Both laws essentially aim to subject the future expansion of renewable energy more strongly to market forces. The EEG reform is set to eliminate subsidies for small-scale solar installations, among other measures. The “grid package” is designed to manage the addition of wind turbines and large-scale PV systems by designating grid areas with bottlenecks as “capacity-constrained”; conditions for building installations in these areas would consequently be less favorable.
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Regarding the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), the BDI welcomes the focus on cost-effective ground-mounted solar installations. However, operators of small-scale systems are placed at a disadvantage, as they will be required to market their electricity themselves in the future. The solar industry also generally welcomes this approach but criticizes the fact that the necessary systemic prerequisites are not yet in place. Industry representative Lösch, on the other hand, sees “the right incentives to lower overall system costs and utilize renewable energies in a way that better serves the system.”
“The grid package also points in the right direction,” he added. “It creates incentives to increasingly connect new installations where the grids can accommodate additional feed-in.”
However, Reiche’s initial proposals met with fierce criticism. The mechanical engineering sector, for instance, fears a significant slowdown in the deployment of new wind turbines. The draft legislation currently being discussed by the cabinet has been amended so that new turbines in “capacity-constrained” areas can no longer be shut down entirely without compensation for operators; the compensation will merely be reduced.
At the same time, however, the active power output of new turbines is to be capped to prevent grid overloads. The BDI criticized this approach, stating: “The crucial thing is to select only one of the two instruments and design it in such a way that it avoids placing disproportionate burdens on projects.”
Author: AFP – pe/oer
Sources: AFP Press Portal