In his series on how German energy policy needs to change, Craig Morris has focused on keeping costs down, but today he talks about spreading them around fairly. The issue is not just industry exemptions, but also grid costs in general.
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Hamburg citizens vote to buy back energy grid
On September 22nd, citizens in Hamburg, Germany’s second biggest city, not only re-elected Angela Merkel as chancellor but also gave their electoral mandate to the city authority to buy back the energy grid in their Hanseatic city. Why? Because they concluded that the private sector cannot be trusted with public services – and that community ownership and participatory governance is the way to go, notes Anna Leidreiter.
Reforming the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) – An end to feed-in tariffs?
In his last post, Craig Morris discussed two market failures and argued that energy corporations need to assume more responsibility for risk in the energy transition. Today, he adds two more market failures and says small investors can shoulder more of the burden, but only if they have more information.
Reforming the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) – Market solutions for market failures
Germany does not yet have a new coalition, but the debate about German energy policy reform is in full bloom. Today, Craig Morris talks about the changes that would affect energy corporations – and can’t help noticing the German penchant for market-based instruments and efforts to limit governmental intervention.
Local, Decentralized, Innovative: Why Germany’s Municipal Utilities are Right for the Energiewende
What role do municipal utilities play in the German Energiewende? In many cases, they have become the drivers of local innovation, reports Paul Hockenos.
Tweets to the Telegraph
Assaults on the Energiewende continue unabated. Craig Morris says rebuttals are becoming hard to write because the arguments in the original articles do not flow from one to the other.
Community ownership – is it crowdfunding?
Recently, the UK’s Sam Friggens spoke of community ownership in Germany as crowdfunding. Craig Morris wondered why he had never heard the Germans call it that, and he could think of two reasons – one small, the other big.
German Energy Politics Remain Challenging After Federal Election Results 2013
Angela Merkel is the big winner of yesterday’s federal election in Germany. Yet, forming a government will not be a simple task. Matthias Lang gives a first outlook on the process of coalition negotiations in the coming weeks and what the possible results might mean for the Energiewende in the coming years.
2013 German Election Energy Party Profiles – Final Part 7: German Energy Politics in a European Context
The German Energiewende clearly has a European dimension and communication has not been ideal. Manfred Ungemach and Markus Przytulski look at how the German parties want to embed the German energy transition in broader European energy policy.
2013 German Election Energy Party Profiles – Part 6: Energy Efficiency
What do the German parties have to say on energy efficiency? Manfred Ungemach and Markus Przytulski compare the different positions in the upcoming federal election.