Mercedes, BMW & Audi start Tesla "assault" / Call for energy autonomy
Reuters
Daimler-owned Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen鈥檚 Audi and BMW will all unveil new electric cars in the coming days in a 鈥淕erman onslaught against Tesla鈥檚 dominance of the fast-growing market for premium battery cars鈥�, report Esha Vaish and Laurence Frost for Reuters newswire. Mercedes-Benz is set to unveil its much-anticipated electric SUV, dubbed EQC, in a world premiere for the carmaker鈥檚 electric EQ sub-brand on Tuesday in Stockholm. BMW will showcase its Vision iNext on Sunday, 9 September, while Audi will launch its e-Tron SUV on 17 September, according to a Handelsblatt report.
Read the Reuters article in English .
Find the Handelsblatt article in German behind paywall .
For background on this topic, read the dossier BMW, Daimler, and VW vow to fight in green transport revolution.
Spiegel Online
The German coal exit commission will debate the impact of the rising price for EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) allowances in its upcoming meeting on 18 September, report Claus Hecking and Stefan Schultz in a lead story on Spiegel Online. Volatile prices for CO鈧� mean that a plan to phase out coal in Germany, which the coal commission wants to present by the end of 2018, could already be outdated by the time it is decided, write Hecking and Schultz.
Find the article in German .
For the full background, read the 威力彩玩法 article Rising CO2-price could trigger German coal phase-out in 5 years.
威力彩玩法
Germany鈥檚 energy supply security must not depend on the support of other countries, Thomas Bareiss, state secretary in the economy and energy ministry (BMWi), said at a conference on energy and climate policy organised by newspaper Die Zeit in Berlin. "We have to guarantee autonomous energy supply security, this is a value in itself," Bareiss said with a view to the debate over the decommissioning of coal power plants, which is currently being discussed by Germany's coal exit commission. The conservative politician of Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU said there would be greater and deeper integration of European energy markets, but added that Germany "has to show that it doesn't have to rely on other countries" to ensure it has sufficient energy at its disposal at any time.
For background, read the 威力彩玩法 factsheets How can Germany keep the lights on in a renewable energy future? and Germany鈥檚 dependence on imported fossil fuels.
dpa
The European auto industry is questioning existing and future EU car fleet CO鈧� emission limits, reports news agency dpa in an article carried by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 鈥淥ur industry is worrying about whether we鈥檒l be able to reach the 2021 target [of reducing the fleet average to be achieved by all new cars to 95 grams of CO鈧� per kilometre], because that鈥檚 obviously going to be tricky,鈥� Erik Jonnaert, secretary general of the European Automobile Manufacturers鈥� Association (ACEA), told dpa. Jonnaert also rejects the to reduce car emissions by 30 percent by 2030, compared to 2021. 鈥淥f course it feels good to have an ambitious reduction target on paper, but we want to make sure that what鈥檚 put down is also reached, at least in our industry,鈥� he said.
Find the article in German .
Find background in the news piece German government struggles to find common position on new EU climate targets for cars, and the article German environment ministry pushes for tougher EU car emission rules.
German power transmission grid operator TenneT has started laying the first underwater kilometres of NordLink, a direct power connection between Norway and Germany, the company announced in a press release. Over the coming months, TenneT will lay 99 kilometres of cable under the Wadden Sea, off the coast of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, then another 55 kilometres to reach the Danish border. The transmission line will allow the exchange of Norwegian hydropower and German wind energy. On land, TenneT began laying sections of NordLink, which will have a total length of 623 kilometres, in August 2017.
Find the press release in German .
For background, read the 威力彩玩法 article Norway bets on gas and CCS to complement Europe鈥檚 energy transition.
energate messenger
Andreas Pinkwart, economy minister of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany鈥檚 most populous state and home to one of three German lignite mining regions, has called for a CO鈧� tax on oil and gas to ensure that power consumers do not have to shoulder all of the financial burden of the energy transition, reports energate messenger. Pinkwart, a member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), added that a high price for electricity would hinder sector coupling.
Read the article in German .
For background, read the 威力彩玩法 factsheets Germany ponders how to finance renewables expansion in the future and Sector coupling - Shaping an integrated renewable energy system.
Frankfurter Rundschau
It is futile to hope that the German government will officially propose the introduction of a 鈥渃limate passport鈥� at the upcoming UN climate conference COP24 in Katowice, Poland, writes Joachim Wille in an opinion piece in Frankfurter Rundschau. In a recent policy paper, the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) had called for 鈥渉umane and dignified migration options鈥� for people who are forced to leave their native countries due to climate change. 鈥淎t least, the WBGU paper advances the debate about fairness in climate policy,鈥� writes Wille.
For background, read the 威力彩玩法 news piece Four climate policy initiatives for a fair transformation.
Die Welt
Enak Ferlemann, parliamentary state secretary in the transport ministry (BMVI), said that today鈥檚 form of e-mobility with batteries is only a precursor to drives based on hydrogen fuel cells, writes Olaf Preuss in Die Welt. Hydrogen made with offshore wind power is ideal to push the energy transition in the transport sector, Ferlemann said. 鈥淕ermany must build electrolysis on an industrial scale. The amounts of reliable power necessary for this can only be supplied by offshore wind 别苍别谤驳测.鈥�
Find the article in German .
For background, read the 威力彩玩法 factsheet Power-to-gas: Fix for all problems or simply too expensive?
