Head of Germany’s economic experts’ council calls for readjustment of Energiewende funding

Germany needs a “reasonable readjustment” of its energy transition to get a grip on the “costs that are out of control”, Christoph M. Schmidt, head of the German Council of Economic Experts (Wirtschaftsweisen), says in an article on Focus Online. “With its current detail-oriented changes and its planned economy approach, the country cannot achieve a full energy transition without massive welfare losses”, Schmidt argues. In order to avoid “further rises in costs”, the government ought to introduce more market principles, and refrain from launching an Energiewende fund that “passes the costs of future renewables expansion on to future generations”.

Read the article in German here.

See the CLEW factsheet Germany ponders how to finance renewables expansion in the future for background.