SWM halts German renewables programme

Munich, where SWM had ambitious plans for renewable power supply

Munich utility Stadtwerke München (SWM) said it will halt all planned investments in renewable energy projects in Germany that are not already in construction, in response to a government proposal for harsh cuts in support.

SWM in 2008 unveiled a €9bn ($12bn) programme to provide 100% of renewable electricity to Munich’s residential customers by 2015, and to its industrial clients by 2025. The city has 1.4 million inhabitants.

But if guaranteed conditions on which investment decisions have been made are changed arbitrarily, “then such investments aren’t possible any longer in Germany", SWM CEO Florian Bieberbach said.

He added that the planned scale of investments were of “an economically existential scale for SWM.”

The plan proposed earlier this month by German environment minister Peter Altmaier and economics minister Philipp Rösler could affect certainty over large future projects…

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