A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Zitzer, Suzanne E. Working Paper Renewable energy policy and wind energy development in Germany UFZ Discussion Paper, No. 8/2009 Provided in Cooperation with: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) Suggested Citation: Zitzer, Suzanne E. (2009) : Renewable energy policy and wind energy development in Germany, UFZ Discussion Paper, No. 8/2009, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung (UFZ), Leipzig This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/44741 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu UFZ-Diskussionspapiere Department Urban Ecology, Environmental Planning and Transport 8/2009 Renewable Energy Policy and Wind Energy Development in Germany Suzanne E. Zitzer July 2009 Herausgeber: Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung GmbH - UFZ Permoserstr. 15 04318 Leipzig ISSN 1436-140X Department Urban Ecology, Environmental Planning and Transport Renewable Energy Policy and Wind Energy Development in Germany Suzanne E. Zitzera Fulbright Student Grantee July 2009 a UFZ – Centre for Environmental Research Department Urban Ecology, Environmental Planning and Transport Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany e-mail: [email protected] Table of Contents 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 2. Development of Renewable Energy Policy in Germany ................................................. 2 2.1 The 1970s and 1980s ....................................................................................................... 2 2.2 Developments in the 1990s: The Electricity Feed-in Law and “Liberalization” of the Electricity Market ............................................................................................................ 5 2.3 Environmental Policies of the Red-Green Coalition and the Renewable Energy Sources Act (RESA) ........................................................................................................ 8 2.4 RESA in the Grand Coalition, 2005 to Today ............................................................... 13 2.5 Influences upon Germany’s Approach to RES-E .......................................................... 14 3. Wind Energy: a German Success with Challenges of Its Own ..................................... 17 3.1 Overview of Wind Energy Development in Germany .................................................. 18 3.2 Particularities and Challenges of Onshore Wind Energy in Germany .......................... 23 3.3 Particularities and Challenges of Offshore Wind Energy in Germany ......................... 27 3.4 Factors for Acceptance and Improved Implementation of Wind Energy ...................... 29 4. Conclusions: Ongoing Challenges for Renewable Energy Development ..................... 30 Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................... 33 References ................................................................................................................................. 33 List of Tables and Figures Table 1: EEG remuneration rates (in Euro ct/kWh) for wind power for 2002-2004 and the latest revision in January 2009 ................................................................................ 11 Figure 1: Structure of electricity production from renewable energies in Germany in the year 2008 ................................................................................................................ 18 Figure 2: Development of electricity production from wind energy in Germany from 1990 to 2008 ..................................................................................................................... 22 Figure 3: Number of wind turbines and installed wind energy capacity in Germany, 1990 to 2008 .................................................................................................................... 23 iii List of Abbreviations BMBF Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry for Education and Research) BMFT Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie (Federal Ministry for Research and Technology) BMU Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit (Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety) BWE Bundesverband Windenergie e.V. (German Wind Association) CDU/CSU Christlich Demokratische Union/Christlich Soziale Union (Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union) CHP Combined heat and power (Cogeneration) DENA Deutsche Energieagentur (German Energy Agency) EEG/RESA Gesetz zur Regelung der Erneuerbaren Energien (Renewable Energy Sources Act) ETR Ecological Tax Reform FIT Feed-in tariff FRG Federal Republic of Germany FDP Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party) HTDP Hunderttausend-Dächer-Programm (100,000 Roof Program) HVDC High-voltage direct current transmission RES Renewable energy sources RES-E Electricity from renewable energy sources RWE Rheinland-Westfalen Energie SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands StrEG Stromeinspeisungsgesetz (Electricity Feed-in Law) VDEW Verband der deutschen Elektrizitätswirtschaft VEBA Vereinigte Elektrizitäts- und Bergwerks AG VIAG Vereinigte Industrieunternehmungen AG iv Renewable Energy Policy and Wind Energy Development in Germany 1. Introduction Germany is one of the leading countries in the world for renewable energy research and development, with one of every two wind power generators and one of every three solar panels in the world coming from Germany. Over the past twenty years the German Bundestag, the national parliament, has erected a series of innovative laws promoting renewable energy that has allowed wind energy to grow at incredible rates. This paper is an historical overview of those renewable energy policies and their effects on the implementation of wind energy in Germany. The main purpose of this research was to discover what lessons could be learned from Germany’s development of renewable energy technology through policy support to use as examples for creating an effective model of renewable energy policy for other countries. The research was directed by following questions: 1. How did Germany’s energy policy come to include a significant priority placed on renewable energy? 2. How has the German policy towards renewables affected development of wind energy? 3. What approach did the government take toward creating a market for renewable energy and what role has economics played in that choice? 4. What challenges to acceptance of renewables exist and how are these being addressed? 5. Can the German renewable energy policy be considered a success? “Success” in this case is defined as setting the country on track for meeting or exceeding its greenhouse gas emissions reductions pledges according to the Kyoto Protocol and its goals for increasing the proportion of renewables in the energy mix as laid out in the country’s energy plan “Roadmap 2020.”1 The goals of the research were: 1. To trace the development of German renewable energy policy to learn what policy measures are most effective and to determine their effects on wind energy development. 2. To determine what challenges lie ahead for renewables in Germany, specifically for wind energy. 1 The goals include reaching contributions of 50% of primary energy consumption by 2050, 18% of final energy consumption by 2020, and 30% of net electricity consumption by 2020 (BMU, 2009a, 6). Primary energy is energy prior to conversion, still stored in natural sources, whereas final energy is after conversion, i.e. into electricity or heat (Kydes, Cleveland, 2007) 1 Suzanne Zitzer 2. Development of Renewable Energy Policy in Germany The production of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E) is a familiar topic in Germany, largely accepted by the public and promoted by both provincial and federal government. In 2007 more than 14% of the gross electricity consumption was covered by RES-E, exceeding the federal government’s goal of generating 12.5% of electricity needs from RES-E by 2010 (BMU, 2009a, 12; BMU, 2006a, 3). Renewable energy sources did not become a major topic of discussion in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) until the 1970s, however, when a combination of events brought environmental issues to the forefront. This section first details the evolution of renewable energy as a theme