Renewable energy: Industry warns of slowdown in green electricity expansion

Berlin. A broad alliance from the renewable energy industry and civil society warns of serious damage to the expansion of green electricity as a result of the federal government's energy policy. The current draft laws on the EEG amendment and the grid connection package threaten the German success story of renewables, according to a call on Wednesday.

Projects are already being postponed and investments are on hold. In protest, the alliance has called for a demonstration in Berlin this Friday under the motto “Renewable energies – expanding instead of slowing down”.

The proposed legislation must be consistently improved, said the managing director of the Federal Renewable Energy Association (BEE), Christine Falken-Großer. Otherwise you will end up with “a roll backwards into fossil dependency and great damage to an important industry of the future”.

The change in energy policy has deeply unsettled the industry, explained Michael Raschemann, managing director of Energiequelle GmbH. “Where the previous government accelerated, the current federal government is slowing down dangerously.” This meant that he had to reduce 40 percent of his German workforce.

There is also criticism from the municipalities. Many communities have designated areas for wind power and developed projects, explained Christian Porsch, mayor of the Bavarian community of Speichersdorf. “Now these projects are in danger of being deprived of their economic basis shortly before implementation; the draft laws will simply pull the plug on them.” Viviane Raddatz from the Climate Alliance Germany called on the Bundestag to improve the drafts so that the expansion maintains pace in order to achieve the climate goals.