“Market instead of subsidy spiral”

The transition to a low-carbon economy cannot be brought about by subsidising clean energy sources and will unfold by itself if market forces are allowed to come into play, Helmut Stalder writes in Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ). “Germany subsidises its expansion of wind and solar energy with 20 billion euros per year,” Stalder says, adding that the country “failed to take coal and gas out of the market,” thereby creating overcapacities and a price collapse. Europe “wallows in subsidised power,” he writes. Switzerland should not react to this unusual situation by subsidising domestic energy producers itself, but rather consider steering taxes to lower power consumption and rethink whether “autarchy in power production is necessary in times of highly interconnected surplus markets.”

Read the article in German here.

For background on the Energiewende’s effects on Germany’s neighbours, read the CLEW dossier Germany's energy transition in the European context.