Unexpectedly, Trend Research have updated their controversial study from 2013. The share of citizen investments in renewables remains high but has clearly fallen. Craig Morris goes in-depth on the controversy. Let’s go ahead and start with the new data up to 2016 in Trend Research’ study published in December 2017. You can get it here for a mere 2,500 euros. One industry insider told me that no one contracted the study, and I have found no one who saw it coming; Trend Research merely had the data and were able to produce an update after four years – hence the price tag. We see here that citizens (households and farms) still made up 42.5% of investments in renewables up to 2016 (the numbers are not for 2016 alone). Utilities, which made up around 90% of investments in energy generation infrastructure just two or three decades ago, now make up less than a sixth (15.7%). And the “Big Four” German utilities who used to cover 75% of the market only account for 5.4% of investments in … Continue reading Share of German citizen renewable energy shrinking