Germans “surprisingly” climate-sceptic / First onshore wind tender
Cardiff University / Climate Outreach / klimafakten.de
Renewables are the most positively received energy sources for Germans, while the country’s population largely rejects higher electricity prices and taxes on fossil sources, according to a four-country cross-national survey by Cardiff University, Climate Outreach, and others, which was presented by klimafakten.de* in Berlin. Other findings:
- With 16 percent of German respondents saying they do not believe in climate change, Germans are most sceptical among the four countries surveyed (United Kingdom, France, Norway). “That surprised me,” said Ortwin Renn, scientific director of IASS, who was also involved in the study.
- Only 24 percent of German respondents believe that the vast majority of scientists (80 percent or more) agree that climate change is happening and that humans are largely causing it, compared to 30 percent in the UK, 33 percent in France and 35 percent in Norway. The actual number is 97 percent, according to several studies, klimafakten.de says in a press release. “Not even every third German knows that climate scientists are very, very sure and agree very, very much,” said klimafakten.de director Carel Mohn.
- 35 percent of German respondents trust local governments “quite a bit/very much” to transform the energy system towards the use of cleaner forms of energy, the highest trust in any institution in any of the four countries.
The complete survey results are available in English here, and a press release in German here.
Find a Guardian article on the study in English here.
*Like the Clean Energy Wire, klimafakten.de is a project funded by Stiftung Mercator and the European Climate Foundation.
Federal Network Agency
The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) launched Germany’s first onshore wind tender, introduced by last year’s reform of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG), the agency says in a press release. Tenders affect facilities with an installed capacity larger than 750 kilowatts (kW). In this round of bidding a total volume of 800 megawatts is tendered, and bids must not exceed 7 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh).
Read the press release in German here.
For background read the CLEW factsheet What to do with the nuclear waste – the storage question dossier The reform of the Renewable Energy Act.
German transmission grid operators published their provisional route proposals for SuedLink and SuedOstLink, the direct current high-voltage power lines to connect Germany’s windy north with the power-hungry south. The routes were “not set in stone,” said 50Hertz’s CEO Boris Schucht, and the operators expected legal challenges to their proposals, according to newspaper Tagesspiegel. Due to protests by affected citizens, the federal government decided new direct current transmission lines should be laid predominantly underground. The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) is now examining the proposals. Final routes will be decided by 2020 and construction finished by 2025, Tagesspiegel reports.
Find the press releases in German here and here, the Tagesspiegel article in German here and the BNetzA press release in German here.
For background read the CLEW factsheets Loop flows: Why is wind power from northern Germany putting east European grids under pressure? and Re-dispatch costs in the German power grid.
Clean Energy Wire
Germany will need an “efficiency revolution” to reach its target of halving energy consumption by 2050, according to energy state secretary Rainer Baake. At a conference by the German Industry Initiative for Energy Efficiency (DENEFF) in Berlin, Baake said the consultation for his ministry’s Green Paper on energy efficiency had revealed broad support for establishing an “efficiency first” principle. He said a dedicated efficiency law could make sense if it contained concrete targets.
Baake said his ministry planned to release a white paper on the issue before the election, adding he hoped the new government would turn it into reality. He also lamented that concrete policy measures to increase efficiency were always met with many concerns, even though everybody was in favour of efficiency in theory.
Also read yesterday’s article State Sec sees efficient sector-coupling gaining ground post-election.
For background, read the CLEW factsheet From ideas to laws – how Energiewende policy is shaped and the dossier The Energiewende and Efficiency.
Handelsblatt
The planned law on energy efficiency in public buildings will be further delayed due to disagreements within the government coalition of conservatives (CDU/CSU) and Social Democrats (SPD), writes Klaus Stratmann in Handelsblatt. “Buildings are key for climate protection. They produce 30 percent of German CO₂ emissions,” writes Stratmann. The current draft obliges the federal, as well as state and municipal governments to invest more in the energy efficiency of their buildings, but does not cover private buildings.
Read the article in German here.
For more information read the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and Efficiency.
Rheinische Post
Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks called the search for a final repository for Germany’s nuclear waste a “test case for our democracy”, reports Rheinische Post. The search would require citizens to take on responsibility. “Not in my backyard” would no longer suffice as the only reason to oppose a repository, Hendricks told Rheinische Post.
A joint bill on the repository search by the governing coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD, as well as the Green Party, is currently debated by German lawmakers.
Read the article in German here.
For background read the CLEW dossier The challenges of Germany’s nuclear phase-out.
Between 1.5 and 2.8 million birds die each year in Germany from colliding with high-voltage overhead power lines, according to a report published by Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU). “In light of the transmission grid expansion needed for the energy transition, the protection of birds must receive much higher attention in each individual project planned,” NABU says in a press release. The number of bird deaths from such collisions with power lines is likely to be higher than from electric shocks or collisions with wind turbines, says NABU.
Read the press release in German here and the report in German here.
