'Slow renewables' EU chief tells Germany

EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger

EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger has urged Germany to apply the brakes to its rapid build-up of renewable power in order to limit electricity price rises in Europe’s largest economy.

“Solar and wind power are growing far too fast,” Oettinger told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in an interview.  “The German government needs to limit the build-up – either with a quota or a cap,” Oettinger claimed.

Renewables met 23% of Germany’s electricity needs last year, up from 20% in 2011.

Oettinger, who belongs to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said because there are not enough transmission lines to transport power from windy northern Germany to industrial centres in the south, the country often exports electricity free to neighbouring countries.

Germany already has the highest power prices in the world behind…

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