News in Every Project

When the German government announced its collective energy law in October, Michael Gammel still believed that everything would be fine: "Politicians now seem to be making another correction, albeit a minor one. Renewable energies are to be pushed more strongly again over the next few years. Of course, I hope that this will not be limited exclusively to wind power and photovoltaics, but that the other diverse topics for which we can take over the engineering will also be pushed forward." However, what was actually decided by the cabinet this week will have the complete opposite effect.

Irony of fate: in the very week in which people are being dragged down from trees in Hambach Forest and forced to kneel on the ground like in Guantanamo, the film "Wackersdorf" is being shown in cinemas.

Do you remember the Tenant Electricity Act passed by the first Grand Coalition at the time? When it was passed in the Bundestag in June 2017, many people rejoiced. There was even talk of a "justice revolution" from parts of the environmental energy sector. Because from now on, it was no longer just solar or other green power plant owners who could benefit from the Renewable Energy Sources Act: At last, those people who live in rented apartments, on the roof of their house or in the basement with green electricity production would also have something from the EEG.

"Of course, business talks - especially during election campaigns - are always a good opportunity to present and discuss the concerns and interests of the almost 8,000 companies in our committee district with politicians. I really enjoy my honorary position as IHK committee chairman and I also find dealing with economic issues outside the core topics of my company extremely exciting. Together, we are making progress in our beautiful and diverse district of Kelheim."

Refugees, asylum seekers, drowned people, anchor centers, rescue ships, Seehofer. The newspapers, news and TV magazine shows are full of it. In the end, yes: the closure of the Mediterranean. But nobody dares to use this word. Instead, the obfuscating term "asylum compromise" is on everyone's lips and in all the media.

No, a new energy market regulation that really makes it possible to supply 100% of Germany's electricity from renewable energies does not yet exist. Fabio Longo, Vice President of the international, non-partisan Eurosolar Association, therefore called for "decisions to be made by politicians" at this year's municipal utilities conference in Nuremberg. According to Longo, it is not to be expected that "the market" will take care of everything.

We have already reported several times here that the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) has the task of putting renewable energy plants out to tender and awarding contracts. The Bonn-based authority also completed the first round of tenders for combined heat and power (CHP) plants at the end of 2017.

Artificial competition instead of a joint approach to future energies

Are missing transmission lines being used as an alibi for extending the nuclear phase-out? Tarek Al-Wazir did it recently: he brought up the possibility of continuing to operate German nuclear power plants beyond the "final" phase-out date of 2022. Even if the Hessian Green Minister for Economic Affairs wants to officially blame "the CSU in Bavaria" for this possible return to operation, this makes it fundamentally clear that it is not only local politicians across party lines who are at least considering such a scenario.

If you listen to politicians and energy industry experts at the moment, you might think: In future, heat will only be generated using electricity-powered heat pumps. But will there even be enough electricity for this, especially electricity from renewable sources? Or are there alternatives, and if so, what are they?

...and what the GroKo makes of it. - In less than a week, the time will have come: GroKo II will start working through the promises of its 177-page coalition agreement. In keeping with this, we from the Gammel-Zukunftsenergie team have been thinking about this: What do we actually want from the new government? And what does the agreement between the CDU, CSU and SPD say about this?

Attention! Safety warning! If you continue reading here, you are treading on the thin ice of speculation!