In the media: Energiewende approval index, Lignite sector, links to French grid

Ernst & Young

“Cautious upward trend: Approval of the Energiewende rises slightly”

Business approval for Germany’s energy is gradually rising, according to Ernst & Young’s quarterly Energiewende Index released this week. On a scale of 0 (very negative) to 200 (very positive), the approval rating was 93.4, up from 91.8 over the summer. Ernst & Young said while approval for the energy transition had risen since it hit a low of 90 points in spring 2014, it was a long way of the highest recorded approval rating of 102.8, in winter 2012. With approval comes investment, the consultancy and auditing firm said in a statement – 36 percent of companies plan to invest more in implementing the Energiewende over the coming months, compared to 24 percent who want to scale back investment. Still, the report found that just one in five managers believed the Energiewende would have a positive effect on Germany’s competitiveness. Utilities – which have been hard-hit by the transition away from their traditional business models – gave an approval rating of just 87.9 points.

See the statement and the EY study in German here.

Focus online

"Lignite is the partner of the Energiewende"

Martin Dulig, Social Democrat and new Minister for Economic Affairs in the state of Saxony said in his first speech in parliament that lignite mining and power generation will continue in the region of Lusatia.

See the article in German here.

AFP/Zeit-online

“Climate activists demand the phase-out of Vattenfall’s coal activities”

In a letter to the Swedish utility, German environmentalists WWF, Germanwatch, Friends of the Earth and NABU demand that Vattenfall’s lignite power stations and mines in east Germany be shut down rather than sold.

See the article in German here.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

“Trade unions unite in favour of coal”

Four German industry trade unions have entered into an alliance to make sure that the Energiewende “will lead to more employment and not destroy jobs”. They oppose the simultaneous phase-out of nuclear power and coal, if done for “ideological reasons”, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes.

n-tv.de

“Germany and France want to closer link their power grids”

French grid operator RTE and German equivalent Amprion have signed an agreement to enhance the interconnection of their power lines in the future. This will involve cooperation on grid-expansion projects, n-tv.de reports. Currently only four high voltage interconnectors exists between Germany and France – increasing their number would benefit grid stability.

See the article in German here.

Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung

“Bilfinger flees the Energiewende”

German engineering company Bilfinger plans to cut jobs and concentrate its power station sector in countries other than Germany, for example in Eastern Europe, South Africa and Turkey “where coal still has a future”, Herbert Bodner, chairman of the company's executive board told the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung. The energy sector in Europe suffered from “a collapse of the market” causing the company losses in its power operations in the first nine months of 2014, Bodner said.

See the article in German here.

Die Welt

“The spirit of the future”

Die Welt’s Olaf Preuss reports on Shell’s development of hydrogen power mobility in Hamburg, a pioneering centre for hydrogen fuel cell technology. The energy multinational’s Hamburg-based hydrogen operations manager, Andreas Pagel told Die Welt that the project benefits from the growing share of renewable energy, taking advantage of low prices to power the electrolysis used to create hydrogen for the fuel cells, at the same time helping to stabilise the grid. The industry initiative “H2 Mobility” aims to build 200 hydrogen filling stations across Germany by 2023.

Read the article in German here.