2022 starts with the preparation of some legislative changes. The German government wants to pass a legislative package to achieve the expansion paths for renewable energies, the EU taxonomy is currently being discussed, and a legislative reform regarding the termination of electricity contracts is being planned.
High prices on the energy markets have been the hot topic in recent weeks. However, the long-term development of the German energy industry will be shaped much more by the coalition negotiations currently taking place between the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the Liberals (FDP). In this article, we present the initial results and potential points of conflict of the energy and climate policy agenda of the future German government.
At the beginning of July 2020, both the Coal Exit Act and the Structural Aid Act were finally approved. Both laws were controversially discussed in advance. This article examines the key points of the two new laws.
As the transformation of the energy system to renewable energies, increased sector coupling and electrification progresses, grid infrastructures are also subject to change. The operators of electricity and gas networks must prepare themselves for this.
In order to limit price peaks in the balancing energy price, the Federal Network Agency introduced the mixed-price system in the balancing market. However, this procedure was not free of problems either.
In the second part of our series on the “The German electricity balancing market in transition” we discuss what problems arose during implementation and how the market behaved.
2. May 2019 / / Comments Off on PV tops Wind – an analysis of the German renewable energy expansion in the first five months of 2019 
At just above 1800 MW, the first five months of 2019 saw the strongest PV expansion in more than five years. The total installed capacity at the end of May was 47.7 GW. After the new installations of onshore wind energy already declined in 2018, the first quarter of 2019 saw the lowest expansion in more than 20 years. During this period, wind turbines with a total capacity of only 206 MW were reported as having been commissioned. This article examines the reasons for the different expansion of these important renewable energy sources in the first five months of 2019.
12. December 2018 / / Comments Off on What will happen with renewables and coal? November 2018 in the review 
A new law for the energy sector has been agreed on with some delay. It has important changes in store for the coming period. The Coal Commission also has new findings. At the long end, the prices, driven by global economic uncertainties, mainly went down. But they caught up again in the end of November 2018.
18. August 2017 / / Comments Off on Outcome of the second tender for wind-onshore: citizen energy companies dominated again and continuing drop in prices 
The results of the second tender for wind-onshore were less highly anticipated than in the first tender in May 2017. After the significant dominance of citizen energy companies and the surprising low price level of 5.78 cent/kWh (highest approved bid), a similar result was expected for the second tender. The market participants were not “disappointed”.
