Green power and its price

Green power is booming in Germany. At times – on sunny days – solar energy alone supplied as much as 30 percent of electricity consumption in the summer of 2013. The boom is a result of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG). Since its introduction in 2000, green electricity’s overall share of annually generated power has risen from 6.6 per cent in 2000 – then mostly hydroelectric power – to around 25 percent today. The EEG gives priority to electricity from wind, solar plants and biomass when it is fed into the power grid; this is the world’s most successful model for the market introduction of environment-friendly power. It has since been adopted by more than 60 countries.

Meanwhile, a debate has begun in Germany on whether the EEG is still up to date in its present form, because the Act also regulates how the higher costs of renewable energy are passed on to consumers. Since the EEG surcharge increases as the share of renewable energy rises, private households’ power bills are going up. On the other hand, the price of electricity to the consumer should hardly rise at all, because the large amounts of wind and solar power being generated regularly reduces the wholesale price of electricity via the high level of supply. For several years, power has been traded on the European Energy Exchange (EEX) in Leipzig – in a similar way to shares on a stock exchange. The aim is to arrive at a fair market price. However, the consumers only benefit from this if the utility companies pass on the falling prices, and up to now this has not always been the case. Energy experts are therefore calling on customers to switch to cheaper providers or tariffs.

The Leipzig-based EEX, meanwhile, has started trading with “certificates of origin” for green power. In this way electricity providers can prove that they really are offering green electricity.

www.bmu.de

© www.deutschland.de