Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government approved legislation
on Tuesday revamping Germany’s sweeping plan to generate more than 40 percent
of its energy needs through renewable resources by 2025 by slowing the rapid
expansion of solar and wind parks in an effort to hold down spiraling prices.
Already, 25 percent of German energy comes from renewable
resources, but that advance has come at a cost to consumers, who have borne the
brunt of the surcharges that funded the expansion.
Keeping power prices in check is a key element of the
government’s revised policy, even as it upholds exemptions for crucial
industries that require high amounts of energy.
“Restart means no longer following the illusion that the
energy transformation can be achieved by expanding renewable energy as quickly
as possible, but to make sure that the expansion will be safe and predictable,”
Sigmar Gabriel, the energy and economics minister, said in announcing the
changes to the legislation, the Renewable Energy Sources Act.
In addition, Mr. Gabriel said Berlin had reached an
agreement with regulators in Brussels, who had challenged the exemptions on the
grounds that they violated competition laws within the European Union.
That deal was not reached in time to be included in the
draft approved on Tuesday, but will be included in the package before it is put
to vote in Parliament that is expected before the August recess.
The broad coalition government of Ms. Merkel’s Christian
Democrats from the right and the Social Democrats from the left intends that
the revisions will reboot a renewable-energy policy adopted more than a decade
ago.
Energy prices have risen each year since 2000 to among the
highest in Europe, and the policy could lose its popular support if the prices
continue to rise.
While Mr. Gabriel said he could not promise that energy
prices would go down, he said the goal of the changes was to put the brakes on
further increases by scaling back green subsidies and limiting the expansion of
onshore wind and solar capacity. Only 2.5 gigawatts of wind and solar can be
added each year, while offshore wind expansion will be capped at 6.5 gigawatts
by 2020.
Starting in 2017, the renewables market will be subject to
competitiveness, and providers will no longer enjoy the guaranteed prices that
have helped to spur the expansion of wind and photovoltaic since 2000.
Environmentalists criticized the proposed limitations as a
step in the wrong direction that placed the cost burden too heavily on
consumers, while upholding rebates for major industry.
“If you really want to lower the price of electricity for
consumers, the expansion of renewable energy should not be limited, but the
costs have to be shared more fairly,” said Hubert Weiger, head of the
environmental group BUND.
Key German industries have repeatedly expressed concern that
the rapid and costly expansion of renewables could undermine the strength of
country’s industrial base, ultimately putting 800,000 jobs at risk.
The German government responded by exempting energy-hungry
companies from the surcharges. But the European Commission, the European
Union’s executive branch, challenged the exclusions as posing an unfair
advantage to companies doing business in Germany as compared with elsewhere in
Europe.
After months of wrangling, Brussels and Berlin agreed to a
deal that will see some 400 of the previous 2,100 companies forced to
relinquish their exemptions.
Nevertheless, Mr. Gabriel said, industries will contribute
about 7.4 billion euros, or $10.2 billion, to the price of the transformation,
while consumers will pay about €8 billion.
“If we don’t want to lose jobs, we have to make sure that
our companies remain competitive,” Mr. Gabriel said. “This is about hundreds of
thousands of jobs.”
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