Bavarian industry group urges faster renewables and grid expansion to safeguard competitiveness
Clean Energy Wire
Germany’s energy transition is progressing, but more speed is needed to ensure the German industry’s competitiveness, said the Bavarian industry association vbw. A report commissioned by the group showed that the expansion of renewable energy falls short of government targets, and that energy affordability is a major challenge.
The report reviewed the country's energy transition and in the German state of Bavaria. Although the expansion of solar PV in Germany reached the government’s target in 2025, newly added wind power capacity amounted to less than half of the government’s target. Energy consumption overall decreased in the past two years, due to a combination of changing weather conditions and a decrease in energy-intensive industrial production, the report also showed.
“The recent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are a consequence of the weak economic development, and the persistent decrease in production in the energy-intensive industry,” head of vbw Bertram Brossardt said in a press release. “The decrease in primary energy use is thus not a consequence of successful energy policies, but an expression of a stagnating economy.”
Household electricity prices went down in 2025, but overall energy prices for households and industry remained high compared to pre-Covid levels, according to the report. The vbw said that the German industry is struggling with the costs of electricity, and that the government needs to take action to lower these costs. The report showed that industrial power prices in Germany are among the highest in Europe.
“If Germany wants to improve its competitiveness – which is absolutely necessary -, the companies that are located here need affordable energy reliably,” Brossardt said.
The report showed high energy security in the last two years, and Germany as one of the leading European countries in this regard. However, national and foreign energy reserves were needed to ensure grid stability in the winters of 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, and the slow progress of grid expansion poses a challenge to the continued security of supply, said the report.
Preliminary calculations by think tank Agora Energiewende at the start of the year had shown that Germany’s emissions fell only marginally in 2025, driven partly by lower output in energy-intensive industry amid prolonged weak demand and difficult global market conditions, and partly by record solar power generation.