Decision of the EEG reform: triple steps instead of big leaps

According to experts, at least two percent of the area would have to be provided for wind turbines in Germany.

Photo: Marius Becker / dpa

Three parliamentary groups in the Bundestag would actually prefer to abolish it: 20 years after its invention by the then Red-Green Federal Government, for many MPs, the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) is an obsolete model, bureaucratic monster or pure planned economy.

It is so unpopular that the amendment passed today also includes a reference to its abolition: the government must now prepare a plan for "the transition to a power supply without state subsidies," says the resolution for the EEG reform.

Even if the Union and FDP have not got rid of the unloved law so far, they have eroded it over the years.

Germany has long since lost its lead in the expansion of renewables, wind and solar manufacturers feel neglected, hundreds of citizens' cooperatives are struggling with bureaucratic requirements and the acceptance of wind power on land is still low.

“The law breathes the spirit of indecision.

There is no sign of a new beginning for German industry «

Patrick Graichen, director of the Agora Energiewende think tank

The now seventh amendment should change all that.

In September, Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier tweeted that the law would be "an important step towards 100 percent renewable".

It should be a big success.

After the climate package last year, the government now wanted to pave the way for the energy transition by 2030.

The self-imposed German climate targets also depend on the expansion of renewables.

In the next ten years, CO2 emissions are expected to have fallen by 55 percent compared to 1990.

In comparison: Last year Germany was just minus 35 percent.

In addition, the EU has just tightened its climate targets to minus 55 percent, which is increasing the pressure on Germany to even raise the national targets again.

Climate protection in the subjunctive II

In order for these climate goals to be approximately realistic, Germany needs large amounts of green electricity: for e-cars and buses, the production of green hydrogen for industry and for synthetic fuel or for heating buildings, for example with heat pumps.

Therefore, the novella on renewables should actually roll out the red carpet.

Instead, only half-hearted reforms made it into the law:

• The annual expansion targets were not increased.

  They are still not enough to achieve the target of 65 percent renewables in the electricity supply by 2030, as set out in the coalition agreement.

  In addition, the extension was not adapted to the more stringent EU climate target.

  The planned expansion of wind and sun is also too low because the government does not take into account the increase in green electricity.

  The coalition does not want to come to an agreement until spring.

  There is no date yet.

• With a levy of 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour for the neighboring municipalities of wind farms, the acceptance of wind energy in the country is to be strengthened.

  However, this is voluntary.

• So that there is more solar energy, there will also be tenders for solar panels in parking lots, so-called floating PV on water and agro-solar areas.

  The latter are, for example, solar panels under which sheep graze or plants grow.

  A fixed purchase price is then guaranteed only to the winners of the tender.

• According to the law, solar systems on roofs only have to be submitted for tenders with an output of 750 kilowatts or more - these are all systems that have more than 2000 solar modules or more.

  Tenders are usually very complex for small electricity producers.

  Smaller roof systems between 300 and 750 kilowatts can take part in

  
  

  tenders or they use part of the electricity themselves and pay a reduced EEG surcharge.

• The most important relief is the smart meter regulation: contrary to what was planned, private homeowners, for example, only have to install an extra electricity meter with a system of seven kilowatts or more.

  Altmaier's first draft stipulated that all system operators would have to purchase the expensive device.

  For comparison: a system with an output of one kilowatt corresponds to around ten square meters of roof area.

• There was some relief in terms of tenant electricity: previously, communal solar systems could only be used by one house.

  But now the neighboring house or the apartments opposite can also use the solar power.

  So far it was forbidden.

  Each house had to set up its own energy community.

The main relief in the novella, however, is less real progress than the undoing of barriers created in other novellas.

Floating solar farm near the Chinese city of Huainan.

Photo: Kevin Frayer / Getty Images

"The law breathes the spirit of indecision, there is no sign of any departure for German industry," says Patrick Graichen, director of the Agora Energiewende think tank.

Instead, it was about solving problems in certain niche areas.

"It's not even close enough to supply our industry with the inexpensive green electricity it needs."

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From a purely arithmetical point of view, the current expansion of renewables is not sufficient.

"With solar energy we need to double the annual expansion to ten gigawatts, with wind onshore tripling to five gigawatts and with offshore wind power we should achieve a continuous increase of two gigawatts," says Graichen.

Delay to black-green

Many were still hoping for an ambitious reform in the summer.

At the time, the Minister of Economic Affairs ruefully admitted that too little had been done in Germany to protect the climate in recent decades.

Many bought it from him as an "honest" admission.

But in parallel to his mea culpa, Altmaier is already working on the EEG amendment.

Knowing full well that this would not bring a breakthrough.

The first submission was so conservative that the SPD parliamentary group negotiated a few more brake pads at the beginning of this week.

SPD parliamentary group vice Matthias Miersch then boasted on Thursday morning that he had at least improved the subject of tenant electricity and the intelligent electricity meters.

The opposition did not accept that: "The SPD has only removed some of the harassment," commented Oliver Krischer from the Greens.

"But that doesn't make a bad law a good one."

Krischer's theory: Because the coalition does not agree on the energy transition, attempts are being made to postpone the uncomfortable topic until after the federal election.

Then the cards would be reshuffled.

"The government is definitely not going to improve the amendment in spring as announced," Krischer is sure.

If it really comes to a government led by the CDU and the Greens, the EEG would then be a bone of contention for the coalition negotiations in 2021.

Mixed lot of 320 pages

In 2000, the first EEG law started with a total of five pages.

For its 20th anniversary, it has grown significantly.

The amendment to the amendment is a whopping 320, the version by the Ministry of Economic Affairs almost 180 pages.

However, the Union and the SPD deleted a not entirely unimportant passage from the bundle of paragraphs: Renewable energies, it read, are in the public interest and serve public safety.

This formulation can also be found in regulations for the mining of coal, for example to justify relocation for new open-cast mines.

But the sentence fell out again.

Apparently, even after 20 years, the government still does not consider renewables to be systemically relevant.

Icon: The mirror