Critics warn Germany's energy transition "reality check" is designed to slow renewables

The planned energy transition monitoring by Germany’s new economy and energy minister, Katherina Reiche, has been criticised by NGO Environmental Action Germany (DUH) for lacking neutrality and being a pretext for lowering ambition in the expansion of renewables. In the statement of work for the monitoring, the consulting company BET has been tasked with gauging the country’s electricity demand in 2030 based on existing demand factors only, DUH said.

“How innovative technologies such as e-mobility, data centres, storage, heat pumps and the modernisation of the economy can be supported further does not play a role,” the NGO said. The monitoring that Reiche branded as a “reality check” for the energy transition would therefore “de facto underestimate the demand for expanding the grid and renewable energy sources,” DUH argued.

The NGO said that Reiche’s plan would not allow the expansion of renewables to follow market dynamics by capping the buildout of wind power, solar PV, and bioenergy installations and establishing carbon capture and storage as an alternative to electrification.

“It is unclear how slowing down renewables is supposed to save costs if expansion needs to be sped up again to reach legally enshrined climate targets after 2030,” DUH argued. It added that consultants were advised to assume that energy efficiency targets in the buildings sector will be missed and that hydrogen production should be designed according to cost optimisation rather than its climate effect, which DUH regards as preparation for fossil fuel-based production.

Reiche was making “an offer for fossil fuel technologies such as CCS and gas-based hydrogen,” said DUH climate policy head Constantin Zerger. “Industry and consumers will pay dearly if the economy minister misses the economy’s modernisation,” Zerger argued. 

After taking office in May, Reiche has said that an energy transition monitoring report expected before the end of summer that gauges expected electricity demand until 2030, the status of renewables expansion, and the grid buildout would serve as a "reality check" for the government’s energy policy in the coming years. According to the minister, supply security and lower costs should be made equal goals alongside climate action. She argued that previous governments had focused too much on the expansion of renewables,  while neglecting the simultaneous buildout of the grid that is needed to effectively distribute electricity from newly added renewable energy sources.

Green Party deputy chair Sven Giegold said that Reiche’s recent statement at an event by German industry federation BDI that the expansion of renewables is “completely overblown” directly contradicted the coalition treaty between the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), her party, and the Social Democrats (SPD). In the treaty, both parties vowed to continue the buildout of wind, solar, and other renewable power sources. “With this course of action, Reiche actively turns against the energy transition’s success in recent years,” Giegold said, pointing at recent expansion and licensing booms for new solar and wind power installations. “This ambitious expansion is sorely needed,” the opposition politician added, arguing that as only 23 percent of all energy demand in the country is covered by renewables that more installations are needed.