as wholesale prices fall...
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German Power Costs to Rise as Renewable Subsidy Leaps (Update1)
2010-10-15 09:55:51.878 GMT
(Adds solar power installations in third paragraph.)
By Jeremy van Loon and Nicholas Comfort
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- German power users face higher
prices in 2011 as record installations of solar panels will help
spark a 72 percent increase in surcharges for renewable energy.
Electricity consumers will pay an extra 3.53 euro cents (5
U.S. cents) per kilowatt-hour of consumed power in 2011 to
subsidize renewable-energy generation, the country's four high-
voltage power grid operators said today in an e-mailed
statement. That compares with 2.05 euro cents this year.
Germany may install 8 gigawatts of solar panels this year,
doubling its current capacity, the BSW solar industry group
forecast on Oct. 5. Solar energy earns a premium price compared
with electricity from fossil fuels and it's guaranteed for 20
years. That has led to a boom in solar installations and made
Germany the world's largest market for the generating equipment.
"The expansion of renewable energy is associated with
temporary investment costs," said Guenther Cramer, president of
the BSW association, in an e-mailed statement.
Germany, Europe's largest economy, implemented a system of
feed-in tariffs more than a decade ago to support the expansion
of solar and wind power. The policy is based on consumers paying
higher rates to subsidize technologies such as photovoltaic
panels that cost more to generate electricity without emissions.
About 86 percent of Germans consider a transition to 100
percent renewable energy "important" or "very important,"
environment group Greenpeace said today in an e-mailed
statement. Half of the country's households are prepared to pay
"more" for renewable energy, the group said, citing a study by
TNS Emnid GmbH, a polling company.
The four high-voltage power grid operators in Germany are
50Hertz Transmission GmbH, Amprion, EnBW Transportnetze and
TenneT Holding BV.
For Related News and Information:
Top Stories: TOP <GO>
Environment and Renewable Energy: GREEN <GO>
Wind Stories: NI WIND <GO>
Solar Stories: {NI SOLAR}
--Editor: Todd White
To contact the reporters responsible for this story:
Jeremy van Loon in Berlin at +49-30-70010-6231 or
jvanloon@bloomberg.net;
Nicholas Comfort at +49-69-92041-213 or
ncomfort1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 or
landberg@bloomberg.net
