The European Commission authorised, on Wednesday 21 December, the modification of a German scheme to support the production of electricity from renewable energy sources.
This is a recent amendment to the Renewable Energy Act (‘Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz’ - ‘EEG 2023’). The aim of the EEG 2023 support, with an overall budget of €28 billion, is to ensure that 80% of electricity is produced from renewable energy sources by 2030, with a view to achieving climate neutrality by 2045.
The aid will generally take the form of a market premium paid by the network operator to the producer on top of the market price for the electricity. However, in the case of very small installations, the aid will take the form of feed-in tariffs. Beneficiaries will be selected through competitive, transparent and non-discriminatory bidding processes. Tenders will be organised by technology. Germany plans to increase the number and the volume of innovation tenders, as well as of tenders for rooftop and ground-based solar photovoltaic, onshore wind and biomethane.
Germany will phase out support for renewable electricity production in periods of negative prices (i.e. when demand is lower and prices fall) from the 1 January 2027 in order to prevent overcompensating producers. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)