Government supports fuel cell research / Wind sector set to swell
Transport ministry
The government cabinet approved the second phase of a programme to support hydrogen and fuel cell technology, according to a transport ministry press release. From 2016 to 2019, the programme provides almost 250 million euros to support innovations in this area. 鈥淲ith electric mobility, as well as automated and interconnected driving, we face the largest mobility revolution since the invention of the automobile. The fuel cell is a key technology of this development,鈥� said transport minister Alexander Dobrindt.
Read the press release in German .
businessGreen
European governments鈥� efforts to re-design support schemes for wind power 鈥� such as Germany鈥檚 switch from set feed-in tariffs to tenders 鈥� are 鈥渄riving a rush to the market鈥� by companies hoping to benefit from the old systems, according to a study by consultancy , writes businessGreen. Germany will lead capacity expansion with 36 gigawatts (GW) of the total of 140 GW of new wind power capacity by 2025, the authors of the study predict.
Read the article (behind paywall) in English .
Purchase the full study .
Handelsblatt
European wind power companies are in danger of being overrun by competitors from Asia 鈥� as was the case with the solar industry, writes Franz Hubik in an opinion piece in Handelsblatt. Research and development (R&D) efforts become more important as there is little to improve in terms of size and general functioning of wind turbines, according to Hubik: 鈥淣ow, it would be time to invest in innovation. But the opposite is happening鈥� as R&D budgets were comparably small for European companies, he writes.
Reuters
Several municipal shareholders of utility RWE 鈥� among them Dortmund and Essen 鈥� will not invest in the company鈥檚 renewable subsidiary innogy at the time of its initial public offering (IPO), according to news agency Reuters. 鈥淎s a provider of jobs in the region, local municipalities, which hold about 24 percent of [RWE], have an interest in its survival, making a decision to sell RWE shares to buy innogy stock difficult,鈥� writes Reuters. The municipalities did not rule out investing later on.
Read the article in English .
Also read the 威力彩玩法 factsheet RWE鈥檚 plans for new renewable subsidiary for background.
S眉ddeutsche Zeitung
Utilities and the German government continue to argue about the storage of nuclear waste, five months after a government-appointed commission proposed that the country鈥檚 four nuclear power station operators should pay more than 20 billion euros into a state-administered fund to finance the endeavour, writes Michael Bauchm眉ller in S眉ddeutsche Zeitung. It has yet to be defined, for instance, at what exact point and in what condition the waste is turned over to the state. The commission had proposed that the utilities would have to fully prepare the nuclear waste for final storage before the government fund takes over, according to Bauchm眉ller. Government sources still believe that a solution can be found within the coming month, he writes.
Read the article in German .
For background, read the 威力彩玩法 dossier The challenges of Germany鈥檚 nuclear phase-out and the 威力彩玩法 factsheet Securing utility payments for the nuclear clean-up.
German Bundestag
New legislation regarding the search for a final repository for highly radioactive waste could be drafted, decided and implemented 鈥渃learly鈥� before next year鈥檚 summer break, said a representative of the federal environment ministry, according to a press release by the parliament (Bundestag). The ministry wants to turn proposals that the expert commission on administering the search for a final repository had published in July into first drafts by the end of 2016.
Read the press release in German .
For background read the 威力彩玩法 factsheet What to do with the nuclear waste 鈥� the storage question.
S眉ddeutsche Zeitung
The Paris Car show offers the opportunity to observe the creeping death of the diesel engine, write Thomas Fromm and Leo Klimm in S眉ddeutsche Zeitung. Carmakers are suddenly in a hurry to roll out e-cars, as the share of diesel sales decreases in Germany and France. New e-cars with larger driving ranges could kickstart lacklustre sales in Germany, according to the authors.
Read the 威力彩玩法 article VW, Daimler take key step for e-mobility at Paris Car Show.
For background, read the 威力彩玩法 factsheets Dieselgate forces VW to embrace green mobility and Reluctant Daimler plans 鈥渞adical鈥� push into new mobility world.
Die Welt
Intensifying regulations for energy efficiency and insulation for commercial buildings would be expensive but bring little benefit, according to a study commissioned by the German Property Federation (), writes Christian Hunziker in Die Welt. 鈥淎dditional measures on the building envelope don鈥檛 help us,鈥� said Norbert Fischer, architect and author of the study. He suggests alternative efforts such as using more energy produced with renewable sources.
Read the article in German .
Find first results from the study in German .
Also read the 威力彩玩法 dossier The Energiewende and Efficiency.
Power plants of the mining and manufacturing sectors produced 10.4 percent of Germany鈥檚 gross electricity in 2015, with 50 terawatt hours (TWh), reports Germany's statistics agency Destatis. Most power of the industrial plants is used for self-consumption. Electricity generated from natural gas made up almost half of the total power produced by industrial plants.
Read the press release in English and a more detailed one in German .
