“Researchers: NRW gets left behind”

The energy policy plans of the new government of Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) bear the risk that the state “in the medium and long run is left behind as an energy region”, Peter Berger writes in Kölner Stadtanzeiger. In an open letter to the new governing coalition of the conservative CDU and the economic liberal FDP parties, researchers at the Cologne Institute for Renewable Energy (CIRE) say supporting lignite-fired power production and obstructing wind power expansion resulted in “Germany not reaching its climate targets”, Berger writes. There still are vast untapped potentials for solar and wind power in NRW, whereas support payments for other energy forms ought to be phased out, the researchers argue. Lignite might be “the only raw material, but not the only energy source we have”, they say.

See the CLEW factsheet Facts on the German state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia for background.