Germany is cutting the incentives for renewable energy focusing on their self-financing. Chancellor Angela Merkel has recently proposed a bill to reduce the incentives to renewable energy sources, with the objective of controlling the rising prices of electricity and to invest on the modernisation of the distribution network.
Germany is not abandoning the energy strategy which aims to achieve 40-45% of the total electricity production through renewable sources by 2025 and 55-60% by 2035, and thus closing down the production of energy from nuclear plants within 2022.
A study by the consulting firm Prognos Ag and commissioned by Agora Energiewende, concluded that according to the findings of the researchers, that new generation wind and photovoltaic systems are able to produce energy with costs less than 50% compared to nuclear installations.
The study is based on a comparison between the social incentive feed-in-tariff that the UK is applying to new nuclear and those that the Germans are instead allocating for renewables, which shows that the costs are much lower for renewable energy sources.
The result of the study reveals that the cost of nuclear energy in the UK have remained constant, while those of wind and solar power are steadily decreasing.
The reason for this is now overt competitiveness of renewable energy compared to nuclear power, according to Agora Energiewende lies in the fact that thanks to two decades of constant technological progress, the costs have been cut down. The innovations have made it possible to dramatically decrease costs and to compete on the open market even after the gradual reduction of tariffs.
“Germany – concludes the report – along with other countries will demonstrate how it is possible through wind and solar energy to derive sufficient power to cover all needs, and with an absolute affordability.”
