GERMANY TO CUT FEED IN TARIFFS

Germany to Cut Solar Subsidies in 2010, Pfeiffer Says
Brian Parkin, October 13, 2009 (Bloomberg News)

"Germany’s next government plans to reduce incentives to generate solar power as early as 2010 [and review Germany’s renewable energy law in 2011], the energy spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats said.

"Shares of Bonn-based Solarworld AG and Q-Cells SE based in Thalheim fell after Joachim Pfeiffer said that Solar capacity has “massively increased” by about 3000 megawatts this year at the same time as the price of solar-power panels has plummeted...The government is “obliged” to address the matter, Pfeiffer told reporters… after a meeting of a group negotiating energy policy for the next four years for Merkel’s prospective coalition with the Free Democratic Party…"

Germany's FiT has been very successful but...(click to enlarge)

"Germany, the world’s largest market for solar products last year, guarantees renewable energy generators fixed payments for the power they produce to nurture solar-panel makers such as Solarworld. The Free Democrats have called for those subsidized tariffs to be slashed, arguing they drive up the price of electricity.

"Owners of solar panels receive as much 43 euro cents (64 U.S. cents) per kilowatt-hour of power they generate. That’s set to fall as solar equipment becomes cheaper. The normal consumer price per kilowatt-hour is about 20 euro cents…"

...revising its carefully designed degression rate could be ruinous. (click to enlarge)

"…[T]he energy group also sealed a “framework” for extending the lifespan of nuclear-power reactors in Germany, overturning a moratorium on atomic power introduced in 2002 by then Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democratic-led government with the Green party. At present, Germany’s 17 nuclear plants are due to close by about 2021…[One group member said nuclear will be important in Germany energy for 20 years]…

"…Members from the three coalition parties -- Merkel’s CDU, its CSU Bavarian sister party and the Free Democrats -- also agreed to hold to a prior goal of producing 30 percent of power from renewable sources such as wind, wave or solar energy…"