But as the election campaign slowly gains pace, it can be rather hard to discern who stands for what among the country’s parties, while complex coalition arithmetic leaves the outcome wide open.

At first glance it would seem that a continuation of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s current centre-right coalition could spell hardship for renewables.

Environment minister Peter Altmaier, from Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), and economics minister Philipp Rösler, from the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), earlier this year made proposals for harsh cuts to renewable feed-in tariffs and a five-month moratorium before any support for future installations would be paid at all.

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