Renewables levy to decrease slightly in 2018 – think tank

Germany’s levy to support renewables expansion, the EEG surcharge, will decrease to around 6.74 euro cents per kilowatt hour (ct/kWh) in 2018, from this year’s 6.88 ct/kWh, according to calculations by think tank Agora Energiewende.* A predicted rise in wholesale power prices would lower the support payments to renewable power producers. In addition, Germany’s “green energy account” has a surplus of more than 3 billion euros, which could be used to lower the levy for consumers, writes Agora Energiewende in a press release. In 2019, support payments for newly built offshore wind parks would then significantly increase the EEG surcharge to more than 7.5 ct/kWh in 2019, approaching the levy’s peak expected in the following years, writes the think tank.

Find the press release in German here.

For background, read the CLEW factsheets Balancing the books: Germany's "green energy account" and What German households pay for power.

*Like the Clean Energy Wire, Agora Energiewende is a project funded by Stiftung Mercator and the European Climate Foundation.