https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/germany-boosts-renewables-biggest-energy-policy-reform-decades Clean Energy Wire Logo Journalism for the energy transition * About CLEW The Clean Energy Wire produces and enables first-class journalism about the energy transition in Germany and beyond. + Overview + Motivation + Team + Funders + Partners + Our Users + Contact * News Our daily news articles and newsletters offer comprehensive coverage of the latest developments in Germany's energy transition. + Overview + Latest News + News Archive + Newsletter * Analysis CLEW's Dossiers and Factsheets provide in-depth information, figures and background on key energy transition topics. + Overview + Dossiers + Factsheets * Network The CLEW Journalism Network brings together international reporters covering the global energy transition story. + Overview + About the Network + Mapping the Network + CLEW Blog * Events & Opportunities We organise tours, meetings and online events to help you with frontline reporting of the energy transition. + Overview + Research Tours + Research Map + All Events * Services We can help you find interviewees, background info, research locations and reporting opportunities. + Overview + Easy Guide + Experts + Glossary + Research Map + Calendar Topics CLEW covers all aspects of the energy transition - browse through our topic pages to find news and background on: * Climate & CO2 * Electricity * Mobility * Business * Efficiency * Politics * International * Easy Guide * About CLEW * Newsletter * DE Search form Search [ ] Search [Search] * Choose topic * Climate & CO2 * Electricity * Mobility * Business * Efficiency * Politics * International * Easy Guide News 06 Apr 2022, 13:20 Kerstine Appunn Julian Wettengel Germany boosts renewables with "biggest energy policy reform in decades" Renewables Policy [clew_julian_wettengel_solar_pv_maerkische_schweiz_brandenburg_1] The German government has increased renewables targets again - solar PV capacity is to grow by 22 GW annually as of 2026. Photo: Wettengel /CLEW. Germany wants to fight the climate crisis and its heavy dependence on fossil fuel imports by speeding up the rollout of renewables with a massive overhaul of key energy legislation. In the "biggest energy policy reform in decades," the coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Free Democrats (FDP) proposes to lift the rollout of wind and solar power "to a completely new level" in a draft law amounting to more than 500 pages. It aims to free up new land for green power production, speed up permit procedures, and massively increase wind and solar additions to achieve a nearly 100-percent renewable power supply by 2035. After little more than 100 days in office, Germany's new government has presented what it calls the "biggest energy policy reform in decades" to massively increase the buildout of renewable energies. The coalition partners SPD, Green Party and FDP say the more than 500-page so-called "Easter Package" of reform proposals tackles not only the climate crisis, but helps the country in its efforts to become independent of Russian fossil fuels. Chancellor Olaf Scholz highlighted this double benefit of Germany's goal to become climate-neutral by 2045 with the help of renewables. Today's package is a "very important contribution" to these goals, said Scholz in the Bundestag during parliamentary question time. "With the 'Easter Package' we are showing what we intend to do. Now more than ever, we will become independent of the use of fossil resources. That is our task." Today's package is part of a comprehensive programme of climate action measures the parties had promised for 2022 in last year's coalition treaty. However, Russia's war against Ukraine has added a sense of urgency to not only getting Germany's policy back on track to reaching climate targets, but also becoming independent of fossil fuel imports as quickly as possible. The government said it sees renewable energies as "a matter of national security." The economy ministry has said it will introduce a second package of legislative reforms by the summer. The package includes draft reforms of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG), the offshore wind law, the energy industry law and legislation to speed up power transmission grid development. The package will now be sent to parliament and could be adopted still in the first half of 2022. FDP gives only provisional consent There could be a big hurdle for the package in the further legislative process. The pro-business Free Democrats said their formal agreement to the package in cabinet is meant to get the process going. However, "deviations from the coalition agreement (e.g. climate-neutral electricity system 2035, CfD) must be corrected in parliament," wrote deputy parliamentary group leader Lukas Kohler in a message on Twitter. Renewables reform centrepiece of the 'Easter Package' The centrepiece of the reforms is the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) - the now 22-year-old legislation that enabled the share of renewable power to grow to almost 45 percent. Most importantly, the amendments provide for much higher capacity addition targets to reach the new government goal of having 80 percent renewable power (some 600 terawatt-hours) in the mix by 2030 and almost 100 percent green electricity by 2035. By 2030, installed onshore wind capacity should reach 115 gigawatts (GW), the government says. Annual capacity additions therefore have to reach 10 GW as of 2025. Solar PV installations will amount to 22 GW per year as of 2026 to achieve a total capacity of 215 GW by the end of the decade. Offshore wind additions are increased as well to reach a minimum of 30 GW per 2030 and 40 GW by 2035, and 70 GW by 2045. While the government wants to incentivise the production and use of biomethane in highly flexible plants by increasing tender volumes, the use of biomass for power production will be superseded by its use in transport and industry. In light of the war in Ukraine and the urgent need to become independent from imported fossil fuels, the ministry has increased these numbers again compared to a first proposal made in February 2022. [renewable-] New distance and bird protection rules - and more money for communities To ensure that these ambitious growth scenarios are not hampered by lengthy planning procedures, local opposition and contradictions with other protected goals, the government establishes the principle that the use of renewable energies is of overriding public interest and will be given priority over other concerns until greenhouse gas neutrality is achieved. To this end, the economy and climate ministry together with the environment ministry already presented a new compromise that is to reconcile bird protection and wind energy expansion. With new distance rules between wind turbines and weather radar installations as well as rotating radio beacons, which so far prevented the building of new wind parks in their vicinity, some 5 gigawatts of onshore wind capacity can be freed up, allowing for around 1,200 new wind turbines to be built within a short time, economy and climate minister Robert Habeck said on Tuesday (5 April) in Berlin. To achieve higher acceptance in the population, citizen energy initiatives will be exempt from participating in the tender scheme; it will be made easier for local communities to benefit financially from wind parks and ground-mounted solar PV nearby. New rules for solar PV * Expansion targets and tender volumes will be divided equally between rooftops and open spaces * Higher remuneration for small rooftop installations (outside the tendering scheme) * New rooftop installations that feed all their power into the grid receive higher subsidies than operators who consume part of the electricity themselves * Remuneration degression will be paused until the beginning of 2024; afterwards bi-annual degression * Agri PV and moorland PV installations receive a bonus payment to become competitive options New rules for biomass * Bioenergy subsidies will focus on highly flexible power stations * Tender volumes for biomass will be gradually reduced * Tender volumes for biomethane will be increased to 600 MW per year as of 2023 * Biomethane may only be used in highly flexible power stations New rules for offshore wind * Funding via contracts for difference (CfD) will be established for the tendering process of pre-surveyed areas. The lowest bid receives a CfD for a 20-year term, which will reduce the financing needs for the offshore wind park and at the same time skim off the excess returns for the operators in times of high market prices, the BMWK writes * CfD revenues flow into the EEG account and relieve the budget. Offshore expansion will happen without subsidies in the foreseeable future * Faster planning permission and grid connection Climate neutrality becomes guideline for the grid In addition, the "Easter Package" also includes changes to federal grid planning. In general, all future power network planning is to be undertaken to achieve a climate-neutral grid in the most efficient way; and to ensure that the grid will keep track with the renewables expansion at hand. Initially, 19 new grid expansion projects will become part of the federal grid requirement plan, and another 17 will be amended to best serve the energy industry. To make grid planning and building faster - Germany lags behind with its grid expansion plans by several years - permission procedures are to be simplified and hurdles reduced, the government says. "A new impetus in energy and climate policy that many have been waiting for" - dena Andreas Kuhlmann, head of the German Energy Agency (dena), said the proposals represented "a new impetus in energy and climate policy that many have been waiting for." However, he also said that the measures outlined would not be sufficient to reach the goals the government laid out in its coalition agreement. Parliament would "hopefully" introduce a number of changes, said Kuhlmann. Environmental NGO Greenpeace Germany welcomed the package. "Habeck's legislative package is more resolute than anything we have seen on this in recent years," said the NGO's Reenie Vietheer, but criticised that citizens' energy had received too little attention. German environmental umbrella organisation DNR called the package "a first important step" towards energy sovereignty through wind and solar power. DNR president Kai Niebert called for adjustments in the parliamentary process. "Among other things, we need the introduction of a solar obligation on all roofs, the abolition of arbitrary distance requirements to residential settlements and the accompanying provision of sufficient areas for onshore wind energy," said Niebert. News 01 Mar 2022, 14:31 Kerstine Appunn 100% green power by 2035 - high hopes for Germany's next renewables reform News 04 Apr 2022, 13:51 Kerstine Appunn Govt attempts to reconcile bird protection and wind power in bid to boost renewables News 25 Mar 2022, 15:02 Julian Wettengel Germany can do without Russian gas by 2024, oil and coal by end-2022 - econ min All texts created by the Clean Energy Wire are available under a "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0)" . They can be copied, shared and made publicly accessible by users so long as they give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. << previous news Related News * 06 Apr 2022, 13:20 Germany boosts renewables with "biggest energy policy reform in decades" * 05 Apr 2022, 13:43 'The world is on fire' - German reactions to IPCC report link conflicts and fossil fuels * 05 Apr 2022, 13:30 Russia's war spells end for NIMBY approach on energy transition in Germany - op-ed * 04 Apr 2022, 13:51 Govt attempts to reconcile bird protection and wind power in bid to boost renewables Further Reading * Factsheets * Dossiers * What does the coalition deal mean for renewables, coal and the power market in Germany? Coal, Electricity market, Renewables, Elections & Politics * German top court finds key climate legislation insufficient in landmark ruling Climate & CO2, Policy * Geothermal energy - Germany's largely untapped renewable heat source Renewables, Heating * 20 years on: German renewables pioneers face end of guaranteed payment Renewables, Business & Jobs * German commission proposes coal exit by 2038 Coal, Climate & CO2, Fossil fuels, Policy All Factsheets > * Clean resources and recycling crucial to make energy transition truly sustainable Renewables, Resources & Recycling * Preview 2021: 'Climate election' set to dominate Germany's energy transition agenda Coal, Climate & CO2, Grid, Renewables, Mobility, Business * Preview 2020: Germany's targets under scrutiny in year of global climate action Climate & CO2, Renewables, Hydrogen * Old but gold? Germany's renewable energy sources after 20-year support Renewables, Renewable Energy Act | EEG 2014 * Political uncertainty weighs heavily on energy policy crunch time year for Germany Climate & CO2, Policy, Elections & Politics All Dossiers > Experts * BEE - German Renewable Energy Federation * BMWK - Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action * BWE - German Wind Energy Association * dena - German Energy Agency Ask CLEW We are available to support journalists in their work. CLEW can assist with research, provide background information and help find the right interviewees to speak with on a wide variety of topics. 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