Germany Passes More Aggressive Renewable Energy Law By Paul Gipe

Germany Passes More Aggressive Renewable Energy Law
By Paul Gipe

Despite widespread rumors in North America that Germany was abandoning its system of Advanced Renewable Tariffs, the country's upper chamber of parliament, the Bundesrat, approved the latest revision of its pioneering Renewable Energy Sources Act on July 8.


...The 2012 EEG sets a minimum requirement of not less than 35 percent of renewable energy in electricity supply by 2020, not less than 50 percent by 2030, not less than 65 percent by 2040 and not less than 80 percent by 2050.

However, the law actually sets a target of between 35 and 40 percent of supply within the next decade. This conforms to a decision made by the Ministry of Environment in 2010. Rather than reducing its commitment to expanding renewable energy, Germany has codified a more aggressive target than in the previous law.

Significantly, parliament again stated its support for the rapid development of solar PV in Germany. The 2012 EEG continued the current policy of regulating solar PV development within a "growth corridor" of 3,500 MW per year.


http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/07/germany-passes-more-aggressive-renewable-energy-law?cmpid=SolarNL-Tuesday-July26-2011

.... off mountains, filling the skies w/ CO2 and acid, and acting like luddites about the green energy.

I don't see it as anything more than greed, personally. If you follow the anti-science rhetoric it ends up at the PR feet of a centralized system based around coal/nuclear that is attempting to protect itself from extinction.

Carbon price collapse boosts German power generation margins

03 Aug 2011 18:11:28


Improving German clean dark spreads may not have prompted the German utilities to invest in more coal-fired generation, but companies are taking advantage of the healthy yields by buying coal to lock in the profits.

While German utilities recently deemed coal-fired generation as economically unviable (see CSD 2 August 2011), traders say utilities have taken advantage of the steady price of coal and falling carbon costs to lock in the clean dark spreads. These have gone from strength to strength since Germany closed seven of its oldest nuclear reactors in March (see graph 2).

"We've seen a lot of non-speculative trading with single prices being hit. When people aren't hedging, participants tend to bid more aggressively," one said.

"With dark spreads this high it just makes sense. Profit is about €8-12/MWh as German curve power prices are so high and carbon levels are so low," another added...

http://www.icis.com/heren/articles/2011/08/03/9482340/carbon-price-collapse-boosts-german-power-generation.html

n/t