Germany releases monitoring report for Energiewende

Yesterday, the German government released its own assessment of its success in the energy transition and announced a few policy changes along with a roadmap for future progress.

This week, an independent commission produced its own review of Germany's progress towards its energy targets to coincide with the government's publication of its first ever Monitoring Report (PDF in German) for the Energiewende. Germany does not have a single energy ministry to handle the energy transition, with responsibility instead spread across the Environmental Ministry (renewables), the Industry Ministry (efficiency), and the Transport Ministry.

The non-governmental experts found that, while much progress is being made with renewables, Germany is not on target with efficiency. The country is currently increasing its efficiency by only 1.6 percent per year, whereas 2.6 percent would be necessary. Industry Minister Rösler and his party, the Free Democrats, is the only remaining party that remains overwhelmingly skeptical of the switch to renewables, so it perhaps comes as no surprise that Rösler is dragging out the enforcement of efficiency in order to protect industry.

One main reason for Germany's energy transition is to protect consumers from the rising cost of conventional energy. As the government's own figures show, fuel costs have risen over the past six years by nearly 4 cents per kilowatt hour from 4.49 cents to 8.39 cents (blue area), meaning that more than half of the retail price hike of seven cents is due to the cost of conventional fuel.

German government

The government's Monitoring Report takes up on to of the main points of criticism made by the independent commission: more needs to be done in the building sector, which is responsible for 40 percent of German energy consumption, and in onshore wind – the most inexpensive source of renewable power, but one that needs to be coordinated with grid expansion.

Merkel's governing coalition now plans to offer homeowners a bonus of 5,000 euros when they renovate façades. In addition, 2,800 kilometers of new transit power lines are to be built, especially to connect northern and southern Germany, with project times being foreshortened from 10 to 4 years. Toward that end, there are to be no appeals to court rulings on any of the 36 proposed projects. Furthermore, 2,900 kilometers of power lines are to be optimized.

But while the Monitoring Report (and media reports) focus on all of the work that needs to be done for grid expansion, the government's figures themselves show how little needs to be done in relation. For instance, Germany already has roughly 35,000 kilometers of ultra high-voltage lines, all of which were built for the conventional energy sector. Germany now has 25 percent renewable power, and the grid has not needed to be expanded much at all. The current estimate of 2,800 additional kilometers is only equivalent to around seven percent of what was built for conventional energy.

The report is not without its shortcomings, however. Although Renewables International has not had time to read all of the more than 300 pages in detail, it does not mention capacity markets or capacity reserves anywhere although these issues are crucial for the switch to renewables. Likewise, only one page is devoted to smart grids – because basically nothing is being done. (Craig Morris)