The German government unveils report on the implementation of the 10-Point Immediate Action Programme for its Energy Concept
Joint press release by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
The German government today adopted the report on the implementation of the 10-Point Immediate Action Programme for its Energy Concept, which was unveiled by Federal Economics Minister Philipp Rösler and Federal Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen. When the German government adopted the Energy Concept in September 2010, it also agreed on a 10-Point Immediate Action Programme to implement particularly important measures.
"Expanding the grid is key to the further expansion of renewable energies. The German government's early adoption of an immediate action programme was therefore the right thing to do as it sets the right priorities. Measures such as cluster connections of offshore wind farms, support of new forms of electricity storage and nation-wide grid expansion planning are key steps on the path to a modern energy infrastructure. It is now vital that the Länder press ahead with the approval procedures for the planned priority grid projects in their territories", Federal Economics Minister Philipp Rösler said.
"The transformation of our energy system is progressing as foreseen in the programme. We have tackled not only the 10-Point Immediate Action Programme but have also implemented several other key elements of the Energy Concept. We are gradually improving the policy environment for investments and are removing obstacles that are in our way. In addition to the measures for the urgently needed expansion of the electricity grid and steps towards the integration of renewable energies into the electricity system, the German government has again allocated 1.5 billion euros to the CO2 Building Retrofit Programme. We will continue to provide this amount of funding next year. We hope that the Länder will now live up to their responsibility and drop their resistance to tax incentives for existing buildings", Federal Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen said.
Most of the measures under part I of the 10-Point Immediate Action Programme have already been implemented, for example the amendment to the Offshore Installations Ordinance, the 5-billion euro credit programme "Offshore Wind Power", the creation of a grid platform where the key stakeholders can exchange information with the eight working groups that have been set up so far, and cluster connections of offshore wind farms in the North and Baltic Seas. There are many other measures that are currently being implemented. Irrespective of the programme, the German government has launched a host of measures to enable the transformation of Germany's energy system including, for example, a comprehensive legislative package for the energy transition of summer 2011, a new energy research programme and an amendment to the cogeneration act.
Clear progress has been made in the restructuring of Germany's energy system: In 2011, the share of renewable energies in the generation of electricity rose to 20 percent for the first time, making it the second largest source of German electricity production, even ahead of hard coal and nuclear power. We have also made major progress in energy efficiency: For example, energy consumption last year fell by over 5% compared to the previous year in spite of the strong growth of the economy. And even taking into account the mild weather, energy efficiency still rose by 3%. This shows that we are on the right track towards achieving our goals.
The report that was adopted today will be submitted to the German parliament. The German government will present the first monitoring report on the new energy strategy at the end of this year, which will review the goals of the Energy Concept and adjust the measures accordingly.
