ENGLISH SPECIAL
10 years Renewable Energies Act (EEG) – looking back on a success story Renewable energies have witnessed a dramatic development in Germany throughout the last ten years. This would not have been possible without the Renewable Energies Act, which has consistently been improved.
by Dipl.-Ing. agr. (FH) Martin Bensmann
he three letters EEG stand for funda- “The driving force of the EEG, at that time, supply. “Even if the price of crude oil had mental changes in Germany’s energy was the market launch of all renewable dropped to an all-time low, I was fully T supply. They mark a new beginning, energies. At the time, only wind energy and aware of the finite nature of this resource”, thinking along new lines, the turning point hydropower had made some progress after Fell explains. In addition to this, the envi- in energy and the protection of the climate. the adoption of the power feeding act in ronment politician was adamant that These three letters symbolize one of the 1991. All other renewable energies were renewable energies were a source of most successful laws of the last few years: not really in focus”, Fell recollects. As a regional value creation and that they cre- EEG, the German abbreviation for Renew- member of the city council, he had intro- ated jobs. able Energies Act. Its first version went into duced a cost-covering remuneration for Hence, Fell insists, a compensation rate effect on April 1, 2000, having been solar electricity in his hometown of Hamel- had to be fixed, unlike to the electricity adopted by the German Parliament on burg in northern Lower Franconia in 1993 injection law, where compensation was February 25, 2000. and saw the great success of this model. coupled to the price of electricity. As the The particular aspect about this law is that He had understood very quickly that electricity market was beginning to be it was a result of a parliamentary initiative, renewable energies merited a fair compen- deregulated, a political opportunity arose. rather than having been drafted on minis- sation. Early in 1999, Fell drafted a key issues terial level. The prime father of this law is paper for the Green faction, which he com- parliamentarian Hans-Josef Fell of the fac- Chance for regional value creation pleted in summer 1999. After his faction tion Bündnis 90/The Greens. At that time In addition to the need for a market launch, had adopted the draft, talks with the SPD he was the research policy spokesman of the Green politician also understood that faction started. Hermann Scheer turned his faction, today he is spokesman for renewable energies contributed to climate out to be a fervent supporter and advoca- energy. protection and improved the security of tor of the proposed measures.
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At the same time, Fell and his peers Volker aged at the beginning of the parliamentary Oschmann and Carsten Pfeiffer, who is still term in 1998 that all reports on renewable working for Fell today, drafted a bill. “We energies which the SPD faction discussed put up the bill for review with the SPD in were routed to his desk. September 1999. Then, there was that For strategic reasons, Scheer and those group of four, consisting of Hermann around him then issued an ultimatum to Scheer and Dietmar Schütz of the SPD fac- the German government. “The point was”, tion and Michaele Hustedt and myself re- Scheer explained, “that they were to pre- presenting the Greens”, Fell says in retro- sent a draft for amending the electricity spect. According to Scheer, energy feeding act by July 1, 1999.” He had drafted legislation experts external to the Eco- the ultimatum and seen it through. How- nomic ministry who knew the ropes and ever, the German government did not pre- exposed the weak points, were also sent a draft. So the deadline was extended involved. until October 1, 1999. No draft was tabled even by this extended deadline. The Hermann Scheer A political party was put upside demand for submitting a draft and the fail- down ure to comply with it were important, “The fact that the SPD helped the bill to Scheer says, because this was sufficient The Aachen model scheme set a adoption, later during voting in the Bun- legitimization for him to draft a bill. major example destag parliament, was the historic contri- The then-acting economics minister for bution of Hermann Scheer”, Fell under- Resistance of the coal faction North Rhine Westphalia, who was the lines. Scheer had caused the CDU, the overcome supervisory authority for energies, had party of former federal chancellor Kohl – The procedure, then, as Scheer says, had been averse to the cost-covering compen- which has not changed its character to this been that the electricity feeding act was sation model. The fact that he did finally day – to take the road to renewable ener- taken as a basis. Points requiring amend- agree to its adoption is explained by Scheer gies. Scheer says: “The most important ment were identified. Scheer overcame the as follows: “I was able to win Johannes Rau thing was that a party had been turned opposition of the coal faction within the to oppose his economics minister. We had upside down.” At first, however, renewable SPD with a clever move: “The coal propo- agreed that Rau was to write a letter to me energies had had to be raised into the nents had come to a working group meet- in which he welcomed the cost-covering awareness of the faction members as an ing that was open to the faction and at compensation practiced by Aachen and issue of urgency. This had been a long which the draft bill was on the agenda with that I should then publish that letter.” This process. the obvious intention of obstructing would outplay the economics minister, He had advertised renewable energies at progress. When we had the bill before us who would then have to approve of the many constituency meetings of SPD parlia- and knew which renewable energies were model. mentarians. Smiling, he adds: “The SPD under discussion, I proposed that mine gas As regards the further development of the leadership at that time essentially did not should be included. This proposal came as EEG, the question of compensation pay- understand what was going on. Many had a total surprise to the coal proponents ment had to be addressed. This was a very underestimated how strong the consent because mine gas is not a renewable delicate question because the compensa- had already become within the SPD fac- energy”, the energy expert explains. tion scheme should not be in conflict with tion.” Smartly enough, he had already man- He had suggested mine gas because land- European regulations. The matter had not fill gas also was to be included in the new been solved when the EEG bill came up for law and had been included in the electric- the first reading in the Bundestag Parlia- ity feeding act as well. Besides, his intention ment; the parties were still arguing about it. was to exploit the large potential which And the feed-in tariffs had intentionally not was too expensive to be sent to the flare. been included in the bill for the first read- Finally, mine gas was methane and had a ing. The then-economics minister Werner high impact on the climate. Müller ostentatiously missed the first read- New principles had been in the focus of ing. the new draft bill. Hence, all renewable Scheer was firmly convinced that the EEG energies should be considered. The differ- bill would be torpedoed before it came up ent compensation tariffs for injection had for voting in Parliament on February 25. been clear and were to be cost-covering. At And that happened 14 days before the vot- that time, the development of cost-cover- ing took place. In a cabinet meeting, Müller ing compensation had originated from claimed that the EEG bill created serious Aachen, where the city council had problems under European law and was adopted the first such model scheme. In contrary to European regulations. If the total, about 30 cities and towns in Ger- law was rejected by treaty violation pro- Hans-Josef Fell many then followed suit. ceedings by the European Union, the gov- F
BIOGAS Journal | 4_2010 5 ENGLISH SPECIAL
ernment would have to pay back billions of faction leadership to resolve that we would Euros paid out as feed-in compensation. not respond to the request“, Scheer adds. And Stiegler argued that if we did, we were Werner Müller’s game admitting entirely new European legisla- “Müller then requested the cabinet to ask tion if the EU Commission was entitled to us not to introduce the EEG bill for the intervene with a legislative procedure.” second and third readings unless Euro- pean Competition Commissioner Monti Contract violation proceedings had approved of state aid. The cabinet did against Germany not take a vote on this, which Müller inter- Only six days after the EEG act had entered preted as consent to his intervention into force on April 1, 2000, the EU initiated against the EEG bill”, Scheer explained contract violation proceedings against Ger- blankly. many. Scheer was convinced: “They were One day after the cabinet meeting, the prepared. They had been instigated. They CDU had organized a hearing of the EEG Johannes Lackmann had been instigated from within the gov- bill, which was chaired by Matthias Wiss- ernment, from the economics ministry; that mann, then-chairman of the Economics bill would be killed if we did that.” After the was obvious.” A little more than a year later, Committee. He read out the demand of the cabinet’s request, he immediately called on March 13, 2001, the European Court of cabinet with pleasure. “I immediately took Ludwig Stiegler, then-deputy faction leader Justice decided that the EEG was not anti- the floor and said that on behalf of both and spokesman on internal and legal competitive. governing factions I declared we would not affairs. He made it clear to Stiegler that this On the part of the Renewable Energies respond to this request. It was really a lively request should not be responded to under Associations, Johannes Lackmann, then- time after that. I had not spoken to anyone any circumstances. president of Bundesverband Erneuerbare about what I had said there”, Scheer A few days later, a meeting of the acting Energien e.V. (BEE), was close to the hub admits. SPD faction leadership was called, where of political events in Berlin. In retrospect, Asked why he had not been wavering a bit, Stiegler seconded Scheer in every respect. he says that, without his faction colleague he said: “Because it was clear to me that the “We were successful in getting the acting Dietmar Schütz, Scheer would not have
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53 been able to win his faction over. Schütz dropped this idea and preferred the finan- was considered not to be ideologically cial allocation model. “This made us prick minded and had a good standing within up our ears because we were sure that the faction. there was something fishy. We had an Michaele Hustedt, then spokeswoman for analysis of financial allocation made and energy policy for Bündnis 90/The Greens, were told that this was very much like the also sees Schütz as a key person in the Kohlepfennig tax and as such constitution- process. “Dietmar Schütz, who was also by ally insecure”, Lackmann adds. the side of Hermann Scheer, was the per- Interestingly enough, information on how son to persuade the other half of the fac- the allocation mechanism would work was tion. Those, I should say, who were even obtained by Lackmann directly from more structurally conservative than Her- Preußen Elektra in Hanover. He had a mann Scheer was. From that angle, Diet- very helpful contact there. On Lackmann’s mar Schütz’s part was less spectacular request, this person even went to Berlin externally, but he played a very important and explained to parliamentarians there role within the SDP faction because he how the allocation mechanism could was giving the whole thing a respectable work. And that scheme was finally Josef Göppel social complexion”, Hustedt summarizes. adopted. Besides, economics minister Werner Müller had not been rooted very deeply in acceptance and compensation, the ideas 2004: Göppel votes in the SPD. Hustedt: “Now, if it had been concerning the allocation of costs and the favor of EEG Wolfgang Clement, things would probably injected quantity of electricity were rather The pioneers of the EEG found a supporter have been more difficult.” contrary to each other. Lackmann says of the act in the CSU politician Josef that the federal economics ministry in Göppel, MP since 2002. He had been the Allocation mechanism with pitfalls Bonn was favoring physical allocation at only member of the CDU/CSU opposition Whereas politics and the associations that time. However, after consultations to vote for the first amendment of the EEG were agreed about the obligations of with the energy industry, the ministry 2004 in German Parliament. He recalls: “It F Biogas•Efficient Plants
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was a fierce battle, to and fro, in 2004. In load”, Josef Pellmeyer, president of that fixed feed-in tariffs were not a panacea fact, the Union had actually been willing to Fachverband Biogas e. V., and a biogas for farmers. vote for the bill. Finally, however, reasons producer himself, explains the situation. Looking ahead, Pellmeyer hopes for a of party tactics probably dictated the No to degree of steadiness of the EEG and that it a bill proposed by the Red-Green govern- Stimulating understanding will enable the survival of farms. With ment.” for the bonus for renewable regard to the amendment of the EEG act For Göppel, the EEG is the central politi- primary products scheduled for next year, the biogas associ- cal tool for the energy change in Germany. The bonus for renewable primary products ation man says: “We need a ‘calm policy’ It had raised the awareness in millions of had made energy crops attractive to farm- amendment, no precipitate action. Biogas minds that electricity can virtually be pro- ers. Before 2004, energy crops were grown should be developed further in every vided by everyone. However, Göppel is on set-aside land, but with only the basic respect, such as compensation for the pro- also convinced that: “We must make compensation of ten cents a kilowatt-hour, duction of peak load electricity.” D renewable energies fit for the market so cultivation was hardly profitable. “We from that one day an EEG is not necessary any the associations had to make politicians more. This is the target, and it will be aware of the necessity of such a bonus and reached in Germany around 2015.” did a lot of campaigning. Without the The amendment in 2004 was also very bonus, the situation for the biogas sector important because the bonus for renew- would have been bad in Germany after able primary products had given the biogas 2004”, Pellmeyer says in retrospect. sector a vast impetus. “We had proposed Besides, the bonus had been very impor- the bonus at that time because we were tant for the biogas industry as it enabled running short of waste input. The number farmers to invest in this segment in order of biogas plants fermenting commercial to earn an additional income in view of the Author kitchen and food industry waste was desolate prices for milk and cereal crops Dipl.Ing. agr. (FH) Martin Bensmann rocketing after the first EEG. The plants paid to growers. “Today we can show that Editor of Biogas Journal were depriving each other of the residue biogas production helps many farmers German Biogas Association materials and as a consequence many survive”, Pellmeyer underlines. At that Tel. ++49 5409/90 69 426 biogas plants were running only at part time, economic politicians had kept saying e-mail: [email protected]
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