An English language version of the German capacity market green paper is available on the website of the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy.
Continue reading ‘English Version of BMWi Capacity Market Green Paper’
Monthly Archive for February, 2015
According to media reports, the government and the federal states yet again could not agree on planned tax incentives promoting energy-efficient renovations contained in the latest German National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NAPE). The Federal Association of the Energy and Water Industry (BDEW) strongly criticised the parties. Similar plans by the previous government also failed due to opposition by the federal states that feared tax losses.
Continue reading ‘No Tax Incentives for Energy-Efficient Renovation? Heavy Criticism by BDEW’
The European Commission has today adopted its European Energy Union Package. It includes three communications, covering a “Framework Strategy for a Resilient Energy Union with a Forward-Looking Climate Change Policy, and Interconnection Communication, and a communication setting out a vision for a global climate agreement in Paris in December.
Continue reading ‘Commission Adopts Strategy for European Energy Union’
A study carried out on behalf of the energy exchanges EEX and EPEX Spot comes the conclusion that a split of the German-Austrian power market into two bidding zones would increase the cost of power supply by up to EUR 100 million per year.
The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) has published the details for the first auction for financial support for freestanding PV power plants. A capacity of 150 MW in total will be auctioned. The maximum value for bids is 11.29 ct/kWh. Bids have to be submitted by 15 April 2015.
The Environment Committee of the European Parliament has voted in favor of a draft law proposing to reform the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) by reducing the surplus of emission allowances available for trading in order to support the price. They advocated introducing the mechanism early, by the end of 2018, and also proposed preventing the automatic return to the market of a portion of allowances “back loaded” (withheld from the scheme) last year in a separate vote.
The Office for Mining, Energy and Geology of the State of Lower Saxony (LBEG) and the State Ministry for Energy have published a proposal amending the “Guideline for the Use of Geothermal Heat in Lower Saxony” aimed at facilitating the installation of horizontal ground source heat pumps (Erdwärmekollektoren).
Following the evaluation of a pilot project by BWE members and the German Armed Forces at two military airports in the states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein, the Federal Ministry of Defence agreed to the use of control technology for wind power plants, the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) announced. By using the control technology military flight operations and wind power turbines can be better coordinated.
Continue reading ‘BWE: Better Coordination Between Military Flight Operations and Wind Turbines’
The Federal Association of the Energy and Water Industry (BDEW) has strongly criticised a draft ordinance regulating charging stations for electric vehicles prepared by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), which has not been officially published. BDEW mainly criticises a lack of incentives and unnecessary bureaucracy.
Following written consultation on a legislative package to regulate the fracking technology, the sixteen German states (Länder) and almost fifty associations participated in an oral hearing held by the Federal Ministry of Economics (BMWi) and the Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) on 11 and 12 February 2015.
Continue reading ‘Strong Response to Consultation on Proposed German Fracking Legislation’
