Green Party calls for energy transition "update," says German gov't undermining renewables

Germany’s opposition Green Party has proposed a ten-point-plan to “update” the country's energy transition, arguing policies proposed by the economy ministry are “destroying” the transition to renewables and keep the country reliant on oil and gas imports. 

A key point of contention is a leaked reform proposal limiting priority grid access for renewable projects and cutting support payments. The economy ministry led by conservative minister Katherina Reiche has argued that reforms are needed to save costs and reduce strain on the grid, whose expansion is running years behind schedule. 

“We will stop this grid package,” said Green Party co-leader Felix Banaszak at the plan’s presentation, newspaper Die Zeit reported. Banaszak warned the step could slow emissions reduction and create economic risks. “Once again, a future industry sector is being regulated into the ground,” he argued. 

The Greens’ plan calls for a stronger push on onshore wind energy, proposing to raise annual tender quantities from 10 to 15 gigawatts (GW), with a focus on so-far underdeveloped regions in southern Germany. The party also urged for a quick expansion of small- and large-scale power storage systems, as well as an accelerated expansion of distribution grids, which it says have become bottlenecks for businesses. Rather than trying to increase grids’ profitability, the state should prioritise speed and provide additional public funding where needed, the Greens said.

Further proposals include speeding up the smart meter roll-out and a “right to solar power” under which customers would be entitled to up to 600 hours of free electricity per year at times of particularly high output.

The party also argued that the only change achieved since the energy crisis in 2022 was that Germany is now dependent on the US for gas imports and no longer on Russia. Reiche’s predecessor Robert Habeck, from the Green Party, sought to secure more imports from the US after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and also played a key role in launching Germany’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) import infrastructure in response to the energy crisis.

The governing Social Democrat Party's (SPD) parliamentary group speaker for energy, Nina Scheer, also criticised the draft grid package when it was leaked. Scheer said it risked slowing the energy transition at a time when fossil fuel dependencies increasingly become a geopolitical liability. “The draft bill does not meet the requirements of the coalition agreement,” Scheer said about the proposal coming from the economy ministry led by the SPD's coalition partner, the conservative Christian Democrat Union (CDU). Discussions on the draft are still ongoing.