ANALYSIS: Altmaier may have missed the mark

Proposals by German environment minister Peter Altmaier to freeze a surcharge on electricity from renewables have horrified the clean-energy industry – but don’t seem to tackle the root of the problem of surging power bills.

In order to keep the so-called “renewable energy reallocation charge” at its current level of €0.0528 ($0.071) per kW hour this year and next, the minister has suggested a series of measures that could hurt investors and owners of both existing and future renewable power plants.

Among them are a moratorium on feed-in tariffs (FIT) for new plants at times when not enough funds are available, and temporary cuts in payments for existing projects. The latter raises serious legal issues and could leave investors feeling insecure.

Wind and solar power industry…

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