Large amounts of intermittent electricity create huge swings in supply which the grid has to be able to cope with. The issue isn’t confined to Europe. Australia has had teething problems in the transition to a cleaner network. Wind power was blamed for a blackout in 2016 that cut supply to 850,000 homes. The nation is looking to storage as a solution and was the first country to install a 100 megawatt megabattery in 2017.

Energy Policy Europe Germany

The verdict of the highest Hessian administrative court represents a setback for the Green Ministers Tarek Al-Wazir (economy) and Priska Hinz (environment), who urged the faster expansion of wind energy. They tried to lower the species protections in order to allow for the expansion of wind power under a decree that came into force two weeks ago.

Impact on Birds Germany

The generation of energy has priority over species protection, according to an administrative regulation that Economy Minister Tarek Al-Wazir and Environment Minister Priska Hinz jointly launched at the beginning of the year. The Hessian Administrative Court has now soberly ruled that the decree has "no binding effect on the courts".

Impact on Birds Germany

Providing areas for onshore wind and permitting will continue to hamper Germany’s energy transition despite some improvements achieved in the recent amendment of the country’s Renewable Energies Act (EEG), wind energy federation BWE said in an analysis.

Energy Policy Germany

Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, has approved an amendment to the country’s Renewable Energies Act (EEG) that aims at reaching 65% of renewables in the country’s power mix by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

Energy Policy Germany

The federal government wanted to make the construction of new wind power and solar plants a question of national security by law. However, after opposition was expressed over the idea the controversial amendment to the energy transition law was dropped.

Impact on Wildlife Energy Policy Germany

A part of the wind turbine prototype “Vertical Sky A 32” with vertical rotors crashed on the wind test field during gusts. One of the three rotor arms and the 54-meter long rotor blade were in the field. Nobody was injured in the accident.

Safety Structural Failure Germany

Government and industry today began talks about what to do with 16GW of onshore wind capacity due to exit Germany's old support scheme by 2025

Taxes & Subsidies Energy Policy Germany

The Nordlink cable between Norway and Germany is scheduled to be put into trial operation in December, while testing of IT and trading solutions will start as early as September. Both Statnett and the government are therefore working to reach a solution with the German energy authorities. But why will Germany not use a cable that they themselves have helped to build? They want to use the opposite route and export power to Norway when they have negative prices.

Energy Policy Transmission Germany

Berlin Olaf Lies expects the worst. Lower Saxony's energy and environment minister, together with the consulting firm Windguard, had the experts at his company determine the extent to which wind farms could go offline in the coming years because the subsidies for the systems according to the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) will end. From the point of view of the SPD politician, the results are alarming: "We are heading for a catastrophe," Lies told the Handelsblatt.

Taxes & Subsidies Energy Policy Germany

The construction of wind farms in Norway is booming. And German investors are behind many projects. Sami interests are ignored.

Impact on Wildlife Impact on People Energy Policy Europe Germany

“The lull in wind energy continues. Not even half of the volume on offer could even be successful,” said Julia Verlinden, energy policy spokeswoman at the opposition Green Party in parliament. Most German onshore wind auctions this year and last have been heavily undersubscribed amid an ongoing permitting malaise.

General Germany

Giles Dickson, chief executive officer of the industry group WindEurope, says it’s important for developers to reach out early to people who live near the proposed wind farm before a design is finalized. Wind farms usually pay out a portion of their revenue to local communities. They also bring jobs, sometimes to remote places that struggle to attract employers, Dickson notes. WindEurope is calling for permitting systems to be streamlined.

General Europe Germany

The amendment approved today also stipulates that in the case of zero bids, one or more subsequent auctioning rounds would take place at future German offshore wind tenders. This so-called ‘dynamic bidding procedure’ would determine zero-subsidy bidders’ so-called ‘ability to pay’ in order to find out how much a future operator must pay in grid fees to transmission system operators (TSOs). Successful bidders will also need to pay the government for preliminary investigations of potential offshore wind sites.

Offshore Wind Germany

Germany’s grand coalition of Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and Social Democrats (SPD) on Monday (18 May) agreed on the abolition of the solar cap and an “opt-out solution” for a standard distance for wind turbines. This is a decisive milestone for the expansion of renewable energy in Germany, EURACTIV Germany reports.

General Energy Policy Germany

London-listed The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) said on Friday it has completed the acquisition of a 36% stake in a 396 megawatt (MW) offshore wind farm in the German North Sea...TRIG also said it has exited from a Swedish onshore wind project being developed by Enercon due to construction delays.

General Europe Germany UK

Prices often drop below zero when there is excess wind and solar generation in the market, but fossil and nuclear power plants fail to throttle their output even though their generation costs are higher and renewables have priority grid access. This may be because a complete shutdown of conventional generation plants followed by a restart would cost operators more than continuing production at negative prices, or continued operation is required to supply district heating.

Taxes & Subsidies Europe Germany

Those who continue to demand pricing of CO2 emissions will intensify the recession and torpedo the planned stimulus package. The shutdown gives us an impression of what deindustrialization means. The aim now is to prevent mass unemployment ...at some point [Merkel] has to explain that the climate protection plans drawn up during full employment no longer exist.

Energy Policy Germany

The Bundesrat’s bill, adopted on 14 February, aimed at suspending penalties for wind turbines that do not meet completion deadlines. According to Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), wind farm promoters must pay penalties if the project won in a tender is not completed within two years. The fine applies regardless of the reason for the delay, 

Taxes & Subsidies Germany

The new closures take the number of idled wind power factories on the continent to 19, all in Spain and Italy, the European countries worst hit by the pandemic. This figure also includes sites run by General Electric unit LM Wind Power.

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