Peer2Politics

Yesterday, the German cabinet approved the Renewable Energy Act Reform. The reform, referred to by some as the Feed-in Tariff 2.0 (FiT 2.0), was necessary: In the past few years, Feed-in Tariffs successfully boosted renewable energy deployment in the country. This sparked public and policy discussions around the grid development, market integration and financial instruments that would finally enable Germany to reach its policy target of 80% renewable electricity by 2050.

Unfortunately, the bill passed yesterday fails to address any of these questions. Instead, it strengthens the corporations and energy utilities that have failed to integrate renewables into their business model in the past decade. The following analysis shows why the reform cannot be considered FiT 2.0.

For the fifth consecutive month, electricity prices in have decreased in Western Europe, due in part to increased solar and wind generation in Germany.

Germany’s solar power plants produced a record 22 gigawatts of energy one day in 2012, equivalent to the output of 20 nuclear plants. The country is already a world-leader in solar power and hopes to be free of nuclear energy by 2022.