The path is free for Chancellor Angela Merkel to become German chancellor for a fourth time after 66% of the rank and file of the Social Democrats (SPD) in a hotly contested inner party referendum voted for a renewal of the so-called grand coalition with the conservatives from the CDU/CSU.
In the coalition contract that SPD members have now approved, negotiators of the left-right alliance had pledged to boost the country’s 2030 renewable electricity target to 65% (up from 36% last year), and hold additional tenders for a combined 8GW of PV and onshore wind capacity in 2019 and 2020.
