The increasing costs for the promotion of solar energy have been disputed for a long time. Until now, attacks came mostly from one direction. Consumer protection agencies and the standard energy sector have been sounding warnings for a long time in the face of next years clearly increased funding allocation to the EEG. This will lead to an increase in electricity prices. The blame for this is being mostly given to the strong expansion of PV in Germany. Now, for the first time, the wind branch has commented on the situation.
The solar sector has to communicate to politicians in a creditable fashion as to how it is going to lower its costs in future, explained Hermann Albers, president of the German WindEnergy Association, to the the Financial Times Germany's Wednesday edition. According to him, rescuing the promotion of green electricity itself is at stake. Everything else has to take a back seat to that, Albers continued.
The background to this is that regenerative energies are promoted through the EEG. Within this, about half of the EEG allocation, paid for by electricity consumers, goes to those possessors of PV installations. However, solar energy only makes up less that 20 percent of the total green electricity produced in Germany. Wind power installations, in contrast, produce around 50 per cent of clean energies and receive less than 20 percent of the funding.
According to the report, those politicians concerned with finance of the Union and FDP, Germany's ruling coalition, are indeed making moves to upset the order of renewable energies in feed-ins to the net. The German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE) is warning branch members not to let themselves be played against each other.
Its clear, though, that PV has a particular responsibility, said BEE managing director, Björn Klusmann, to the Financial Times Germany. The solar branch itself has made clear that it will meet the challenge.
Well be going to politicians with concrete proposals before the year is out," managing director of the German Solar Industry Association (BSW-Solar), Carsten Körnig, was quoted as saying. There, well show the ways in which the competitiveness of photovoltaics can be attained as quickly as possible.
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