Industry exemptions for renewables levy must be abolished – editorial

Germany’s renewable levy decreases for the second year in a row, but the government should lower household power prices by abolishing exemptions for companies that do not compete internationally, writes Joachim Wille in an editorial in the Frankfurter Rundschau. The decrease is not due to the transition to renewable auctions as the government insists, but rather to higher wholesale power prices caused by more expensive CO₂ emission certificates. “Further actions are overdue. The real costs of climate protection must be applied, for example with an EU-wide minimum CO₂ price. […] The federal government, however, opposes such proposals.” It is the familiar pattern: it protects the energy companies that overslept the energy transition.”

Read the editorial in German here.

For background, read the article Renewables surcharge set to fall by six percent in 2019 and the factsheet What German households pay for power.