In February, Germany held elections with many echoes America, which was held in November. Voters were angry at inflation – especially electricity prices, which rose by 80 percent after Russia invaded Ukraine and did not return to normal. The right -wing parties have directed this anger towards the green policies of the current government, including the leading Enerwewende Carbon removal A plan made renewable energy more than half of the electricity used by the Germans today.
While President Trump I promised to strangle clean energy Bring Busterly fuel renaissance To the United States, Germany is not going on this way. Tuesday, Friedrich Mirz of the Christian Democratic Union has performed the constitutional oath In as a consultant, he leads a new conservative government in Berlin. I have developed slowdown policies, but do not reflect, the country Strong renewable energy sourcesWhile declining carbon removal in buildings and industry.
The goal: to quickly reduce the bills of families and companies and stimulate the economy. Mirz says German economic policy is “almost exclusively directed towards climate protection”, ” According to Politico. “I want to say that clearly as I mean: we will do and we must change that.”
Historically, the Europeans were ready to bear the highest costs of climate and aggressive energy policies. But three years after War in UkraineEnergy prices are still high-with the continued rates of home electricity in a third of the pre-war-frightened consumers and increased fears of industrial collapse. European companies face the cost of electricity from 2 to 3 times US prices and natural gas above 4 to 5 times.
The elections all over the continent last year included a “green reaction.” Politicians focused on the largest complaints of voters – immigration, cost of living, stagnant economy – and climate ignorance. Dutch farmers revolted against a law to reduce air pollution; The far right was launched against a ban on traditional cars.
However, a few of these developments explain that Europeans want to get rid of energy transmission. In Germany, companies say the needs of EnergieWende Organizational declaration and reforms And a greater focus on cost efficiency, not a “saw”.
Michael Stepl, a policy officer for people with poverty with Diakoni Deutschend, who calls on behalf of low -income families, including those who have been overcrowded with energy costs, says he never hears anyone who expresses suspicion of climate or opposition to clean energy. “Their main goal is to reach the minimum standard for their lives,” he said. “A higher living style will be stable and sufficient.”
Enerwewende dates back to the 1990s, when German leaders decided to remove the economy, starting from the network. The plan was the transition from the power system that focused on Coal and Nuclear energy To one depends on renewable energy sources – with the use of natural gas later as a temporary fuel. Germany lacks domestic gas reserves and relies heavily on Russia, which provided 40 percent of the European Union imported gas in 2021. The Germans funded construction and solar energy through additional fees on facilities bills.
The program reshaped the German energy mix. About 22 GB of charcoal and Nuclear weapons have been retired since 2020 onlyCleansing the road to the height of renewable energy. The transformation of the energy network is the main cause of Germany emissions has decreased by half since the 1990s.
A share of electricity production of hydroelectric energy, solar energy, wind, biomass and waste, ground thermal energy, wave, tide and carrots, 2000-2023
After the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia sharply reduced gas shipments to Europe, and the prices of electricity and fuel decreased. In Germany, where three quarters of buildings are heated by gas or oil, people trembled: in 2022, 5.5 million Germans felt that they could not bear the warm homes.
Painful lesson for Europe: Energy transmission without energy security is risky.
“The energy is very geopolitical, and you always have to strive to diversify your energy resources,” said Kissavartini Savarimotho, who leads the European Energy Markets team in Bloombergne. “Somewhere along the line, it seems that Europe has forgotten that it is building its dependence on a sleeping bear.”
Germany replaced most of the Russian gas with fuel from more friendly sources, if it was, in Europe and the United States, the war was also used as a motivation to accelerate solar energy and wind building: in 2021, it built 5.7 GB of solar energy; In 2023 it added about 15 GB. But with 2.2 percent of inflation still burdening many Germans, right -wing politicians have not faced any difficulty in the campaign against the current government of the legs last year. Mirz described wind turbines as “ugly” and the promised policy “for the majority that can think straight … and not for any green oxans and ease.
In April, Mirz A. announced Coalition With other partners of the two rulers and put Politics Plan For the next five years. Some defenders of the planned climate are read satisfactionAs it stopped brightly the long-term climate targets in Germany, such as Net-Zero achieved by 2045 and coal by skipping by 2038.
Mirz says that his guideline of energy policy is not an atmosphere but “competitiveness.” Taxes and fees on energy bills are part of the reason for some of the most expensive electricity in Europe, according to the International Energy Agency. The new coalition is to reduce these fees so that the electricity rates decrease at least 5 cents per kilowatt hour; This is about the eighth rate that the German intermediate family is currently paying.
The coalition agreement says it wants to continue to develop all renewable energy sources, but with a focus on compatibility with the network. Energy companies complained that in the rush to strike the targets of renewable energy sources, Germany has often built solar energy and wind farms in remote or difficult to reach, which led to high costs. Geographical mismache – for example, fast wind energy in the north is unable to reach customers in the southern southern – means that electricity prices can rise in one region even with a decrease in zero in another region.
More controversially, the new government suggested building 20 GB of generating natural gas by 2030; The entire German energy system is about 260 GB. Solar and wind is now the cheapest energy sources In most of the world, but they are still vulnerable to wild swinging in productivity – in December, wind production in Germany decreased by 85 percent from the normal rate. Merz sympathizes with the arguments of the energy industry that new gas factories can mitigate these possibilities. It also suggests wiping the red tape to store energy, which plays a simple role today but can theoretically serve the same role as the budget.
The potential goal of the Mirz government is the country’s energy law, which prohibits most of the new fossil heating systems in buildings that begin in 2028. Inflation has left many people unable or unwilling to pay The costs of providing electrical systems such as heat pumps Failure to be popular with the conservatives in the campaign.
So what can be learned from Germany’s experience if there is anything?
Sean Gallup / Getty Embs
Renewable energy sources are cheap, but bills do not reflect this often
In principle, renewable energy must reduce electricity bills. Solar energy and wind are inexpensive for construction, and their fuel is free.
In practice, savings often do not reach consumers. Prices must cover the cost of integrating renewable energy sources into the network, paying the price of new transport lines and backup systems necessary to balance the nature pies. Conservatively, Germany needs to invest 500 billion euros (about $ 565 billion) over the next two decades just to upgrade the power network, and Deutsche Bank is estimated. These must be one time investments, but during inflation times, it is understood that people wonder what they pay for it.
Worse, many European countries that have expanded renewable energy, including Italy, Spain, Portugal and Germany, tend to be the basis of energy rates on the price of gas. accident a report On European competitiveness, he said this is a structural defect, the arguing countries must fix prices so that consumers benefit more directly than clean energy.
Green energy is cheap … in the end
Good news: The United States and Europe made great progress in carbon removal in the energy sectors. Bad: Transport, buildings, industrial sectors, and alternative technologies remain much less mature. The shock of stickers associated with electric cars, hydrogen ovens and heat pumps contributed to the green reaction last year in Europe.
However, energy experts argue that more economy electricia ultimately reduces costs in general. “If you do this, you can really go to a very sustainable, very cheap and highly sustainable energy system. This is actually the goal,” said Junar Ludder, who leads the energy transition laboratory at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research.
He said China is moving in this direction. For example, I recently launched a pilot project In nine cities to see if its growing fleet of electric cars can provide the battery storage for the system. Modern trends in the Western world raises the issue of whether voters are ready to make these types of investments.
Ignoring social effects, and the danger of the green reaction
In Germany, buildings have to pay a carbon tax that rise over time. The previous government in Germany has promised to create a fund to help citizens manage these prices in prices – to musical composition From several hundreds of euros annually – but reduce it for budget reasons, leaving the audience with all the stick and not carrot. Europeans remain widely supportive of climate policies for their governments, but it is increasingly clear that this support can fade if the transition is not fair and leaves citizens to bear the costs on their own, ”said another report issued by E3G, a research tank.
While some governments have sent money to families during crises to help them pay bills, others address the issue at a deeper level. E3G said that Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, Denmark and Poland all expanded incentives to make homes more efficient in energy-which can not only save citizens ’money, but rather help them overcome the upcoming crisis.
