After some last-minute fine-tuning, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), her Bavarian allies from the Christian Social Union (CSU)  and the Social Democrats (SPD) of energy minister Sigmar Gabriel today agreed on a final version of the legislation.

Under the draft, operators of new renewable installations with a capacity of more than 10kW will for the first time have to pay part of a surcharge to finance the expansion of renewables (EEG surcharge) also for energy they consume themselves, a levy dubbed "solar tax" by the industry.