Record renewables share, but still too much electricity made with lignite – opinion

Despite a record renewables share in 2018, carbon-intensive lignite is still the country’s single most important electricity source, which shows that CO₂ allowances must become more expensive, writes Benedikt Müller in an opinion piece in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. An alternative to this would be a tax on CO₂ emissions “so that climate-friendly gas power plants could be used at fuller capacity”. Germany also exports a lot of power and “can confidently dispense with this trade surplus in the interests of the environment, as domestic cheap electricity would otherwise threaten the energy transition in neighbouring countries,” writes Müller.