Here is the new German government’s plan for renewables

12 January 20222 years ago babelfish

All the objectives of the German Minister of Economy and Climate, Robert Habeck, on energy. Pierluigi Mennitti's article

A first package of measures by the end of April and a second by the summer to accelerate the development of renewable energy plants.

This is the extraordinary plan announced by the German Minister of Economy and Climate Robert Habeck to target a double goal: to reach the 80% share of energy produced from renewable sources by 2030 and to make Germany a climate neutral country by 2030. 2045.

A double legislative shock, necessary – as the green minister said at a press conference – to make up for the delay accumulated in recent years.

Figures in hand, only in 2020 did Germany keep faith with its commitments to contain greenhouse gas emissions by 40%: but that was the hardest year of the pandemic, with an almost total lockdown that paralyzed for two months of economic and social life. The goal was no longer achieved in 2021, and according to Habeck's estimates, it will not be in 2022 and 2023 either.

So it is time to make a real breakthrough which, in the ambitions of the Greens, will lead to triple the speed with which Germany intends to reduce harmful emissions.

"We must be faster to catch up", was the sentence with which the minister presented his plan.

There is also a political reason: in the last few weeks the Greens had ended up several times in the tug-of-war within the majority on energy and foreign policy issues, often by now intertwined with each other. Between yesterday and today two blows that put them back in the saddle, at least in front of their constituents: the no to Scholz on a softening of the German position on nuclear power in the European taxonomy and the resumption of the initiative for renewables in the hands of the one who has become the leading man of the party, Vice Chancellor Habeck.

If on the first point – nuclear power and European taxonomy – Germany risks making a hole in the water and rediscovering itself irrelevant at the European level after a long time (it is very likely that in the end the EU Commission will include the atom in the list of necessary energy sources. transition), on the second the game is all to be played.

"It took thirty years to achieve the result of deriving 42% of energy from renewable sources", added Habeck, "we now have eight years to reach the goal recorded in the government program, 80% by 2030 ". It will be a gigantic effort, also because it will be necessary to reverse the trend that, in recent years, has moved in the opposite direction, as shown for example by the slowdown in investments for wind farms and even the blockade for offshore ones. Only two Länder (Schleswig-Holstein and Hesse) followed the directive to provide nearly 2% of their territory for wind farms.

For this reason, Habeck's plan provides for an increase in tenders for renewable electricity from wind and solar and rules to prepare the ground for the construction of new plants. For example, an obligation is foreseen for the installation of solar systems on new commercial buildings, a measure that should become the rule also for those of private homes and condominiums. The latter aspect, however, on which there is the slowdown of the FDP, skeptical of obligations for new private residential buildings.

However, Habeck's announcement falls when energy prices have skyrocketed, bringing the social sustainability of the energy transition back to the fore. A point on which the SPD does not have too much intention of leaving the ball of direction to the Greens.

Thus, just a few minutes before Habeck's conference, Chancellor Scholz's party proposed the constitution of a specific Commission: "The energy transition is a huge transformation project," said a heavyweight of the Social Democrats, the regional minister of Environment. and Energy of Lower Saxony Olaf Lies, “for whose success not only economic but also social acceptance is of great importance”.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/robert-habeck-piano-rinnovabili-germania/ on Wed, 12 Jan 2022 06:57:22 +0000.