All posts tagged: Subsidies


Energy subsidies – Less is more

Cut support for renewables? Sure, but why not start with fossil fuel subsidies that amounted to US$ 544 billion in 2012? While the German Renewable Energy Act will need to be reformed, the fundamental issue of creating a level playing field for renewables remains challenging in an environment where fossil fuels are highly subsidized, argues Matthias Ruchser.

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The renewables surcharge could drop

Two items that make up more than 10 percent of the German renewables surcharge could shrink considerably over the next year, possibly enough to keep the surcharge from rising further. Whether retail power prices rise or fall, however, depends on more factors than simply this surcharge.

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Lowering the Cost of Solar PV: Soft Costs with Hard Challenges (Part 2)

In part one, Dan Seif, principal with Rocky Mountain Institute’s electricity and industrial practices, and Jesse Morris, Senior Associate for electricity and transportation practices at Rocky Mountain Institute, discussed the importance of lowering the soft costs of solar PV – all the related solar energy system costs besides the hardware. They covered two cost areas addressed in RMI and NREL’s new roadmap report on solar PV soft costs: 1) permitting, inspection, and interconnection (PII) and 2) customer acquisition. This time, they are looking will look at reducing financing and installation labor costs.

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German utility embraces Energiewende?

Reports have trickled out – and made a bigger splash than the droplets of information may warrant: German energy corporation RWE plans to revise its business strategy. Craig Morris says the new ideas have been obvious for years, but a new ad by the firm shows that the company’s heart still isn’t in it.

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100% Renewable Energy And Beyond!

International observers regularly argue that the German Energiewende is mainly a governmental program. The opposite is true: The Energiewende has always been driven foremost by local communities and regions. Thomas Gerke takes a look at the pioneers and shows that complete independence of fossil fuels is not only a remote vision but reality in many German regions today.

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The Battle over Electricity: Part II

Paul Hockenos recently sat down to interview energy and environment expert Claudia Kemfert. Kemfert, who is no spokesperson for the Greens or anyone else, argues that the naysayers are not shooting straight but rather have armed themselves with spurious arguments, low-ball populism, and outright lies. This is the second part of a two part series.

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Let’s not forget community ownership

A recent report at USA Today throws together a lot of disparate problems to explain why renewables are “losing their shine” in Europe. As Craig Morris points out, feed-in tariffs are not subsidies, Europe is not Germany, and we still overlook the main driving force behind the German energy transition.

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