Renewables support system must be reformed by 2019 – BDEW head

Germany will need to reform its renewables support system by 2019, said Stefan Kapferer, head of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW). “I am convinced that, although we may not have a major Renewable Energy Act (EEG) reform already in 2018, in 2019 there will certainly be a need to approach the system in a much more fundamental way,” Kapferer said at a press briefing in Berlin. There is currently no mention of a reform of the EEG in the blueprint for negotiations to renew the country’s grand coalition government between the conservative CDU/CSU and the Social Democrats for another four years. Budget allocation in the blueprint shows that energy and climate policy is “evidently not a focus for the grand coalition,” said Kapferer. The BDEW made a first proposal to reform the EEG with a three-pronged approach: (1) expanding renewables capacity that does not need support; (2) decreasing new additions of renewable energy capacity within the EEG support system through incentives; and (3) harnessing the innovative power of ‘prosumers’ (those who both consume and produce energy).

Find the BDEW press release on the reform proposal in German here.

For more reform proposals, read CLEW’s factsheet Germany ponders how to finance renewables expansion in the future, and for background on the coalition talks, read the article German party leaders agree energy policy blueprint for coalition talks and the coalition watch.