Ups Renewable Energy Target: Between 35% and 40% by 2020
Raises Payments for Biomass, Geothermal, & Offshore Wind
Applies Standard Degression to Wind on Land and Solar PV
Despite widespread rumors in North America that Germany was abandoning its system of Advanced Renewable Tariffs, the country’s upper chamber of parliament, the Bundesrat, approved the latest revision of its pioneering Renewable Energy Sources Act on July 8, 2011.
The action follows approval by Germany’s House of Commons, the Bundestag, on June 30, 2011.
The new version of the law first introduced in Germany in 2000 will go into effect January 1, 2012.
Approval of the latest revisions of the Renewable Energy Sources Act, the Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (EEG) in German, is significant because it follows the nuclear accident at Fukishima, Japan and the debate in Germany about the future of nuclear power.
The 30-year long debate on nuclear in Germany was settled earlier this summer when parliament decisively voted to quit nuclear power by 2022.
Germany is currently ruled by a coalition of the Conservative (CDU/CSU), and the neoliberal (FDP) parties.
