Energy turnaround in Germany – good intentions are not always followed up by good deeds!

Promoting alternative energies in Germany is on principle a good idea. Under Germany’s Red-Green government, strong start-up funding was introduced, which primarily promoted the installation of photovoltaic elements, wind turbines and biogas facilities. When the whole thing had really got going and already picked up speed, the brakes were not applied, but instead another hefty push was given, This did not cost it a thing – the consumers are paying for it! Only when the voters kicked up against it in response to the steep increase in electricity costs did the government get round to tackling the problem. Now, however, the alternative power producers have not been idle and have been looking for allies. Large sectors of agriculture have become solar and wind harvesters and are the big profiteers of the energy turnaround and, together with the manufacturers of renewable energy technology, they have had any big cuts by their governments blocked.

The Green party and parts of the CDU have now identified someone to blame for the cost increases: the “evil” industry that is partly exempted from paying the levy for the promotion of alternative energies. Not only that it does not pay the levy in full, it profits from the lower prices on the Leipzig Energy Exchange. This line of argument grossly distorts the facts and ignores the above-described actual causes of the immense rise in costs. Only very few extremely power-intensive industries profit from the low prices at the Energy Exchange.

There is nothing else for it, policy makers have to honest when it comes to the energy turnaround! The German voters wanted the energy turnaround and believed that Germany could single-handedly save the global climate! Now they have to bear the cost! The promises that the whole thing would be economically viable in view of the rapid increase in the prices for fossil energies have become obsolete at the latest after the successes in gas and oil fracking and the fall in prices triggered by these.

A discussion about shifting the burden onto the energy-intensive industries in Germany is absurd, weakens Germany as an industrial base and overlooks the real problem. It is our task in the next months together with the other affected industries to make this clear.

Yours Martin Roth

General Secretary of the Federal Association of the German Brick and Tile Industry Regd., Bonn

The Federal Association of the German Brick and Tile Industry (BVZi) urgently calls on the Federal Government to "turn the tide" in residential construction. Although the number of new dwellings rose...

Issue 2/2018 Beralmar Tecnologic S.A. | B5, 115/216