(Germany) Ten years ago, solar expansion collapsed with the famous “Altmaier kink”. Five years ago, the expansion of onshore wind power also collapsed. Two studies now show how Germany got into the energy crisis afterwards – and that a catch-up expansion is worthwhile.
To this day, Peter Altmaier CDU’s CDU cannot discover any major flaws in his energy policy, as he announced in various interviews after leaving the government. (Photo: Stephan Röhl/Heinrich Böll Foundation/Flickr)
The so-called Altmaier kink in photovoltaics is almost a decade old. The then Environment Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) had cut the EEG subsidy for solar power. The expansion plummeted from more than 8,000 megawatts per year to less than 2,000 megawatts and has not yet reached the old level again.
A similar dip followed in 2017 under the then Minister of Economic Affairs Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) in onshore wind power – mainly a consequence of the transition to tenders and restrictive distance rules.
A recently published short study by the think tank Energy Brainpool on behalf of the solar company GP Joule shows: With “kink-free” expansion, 30,000 megawatts of wind energy and 20,000 megawatts of solar energy would be more on the grid today, and in August of this year the electricity price on the spot market could have been more than eight cents per kilowatt hour lower.
With a continuous increase in additional capacities to a total of 50,000 megawatts, the lower wholesale price would also have reached households one-to-one, Energy Brainpool emphasizes when asked. Electricity customers would only have had to accept a higher EEG levy. For a household with an annual consumption of 3,000 kilowatt hours, the potential savings in electricity costs in 2021 would have been 111 euros net.
Source:
https://www.klimareporter.de/strom/den-altmaier-knick-auszubuegeln-lohnt-sich
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