德国新能源政策

German PV Policy

German feed-in tariffs (FITs) for the generation of electricity from renewable sources, under the Act on Granting Priority to Renewable Energy Sources (“the EEG”), are entering their third phase of existence. In Phase One (2000-2009) Germany focused on scaling up domestic renewable electricity generation. With the costs of electricity from technologies such as solar PV far from cost competitiveness, Germany established a FIT policy design that provided Transparency, Longevity, and Certainty (TLC) to investors. During this period, degressions in FIT rates were modest and adjustments to the EEG occurred at regular intervals. During Phase Two (2009-2011) rapid declines in the cost of solar PV modules prompted Germany to more actively adjust its PV FIT in order to manage the volume of annual PV installations under its FIT programs (by, for example, linking FIT degressions for PV to the volume of PV installations in previous periods and reviewing the PV policy more frequently). In Phase Three (2012 – ), continued cost declines are making solar PV, wind, and biomass increasingly competitive with tra ditional sources of electricity; in response, the key elements of Germany’s 2012 EEG –including reduced FIT payments, a market premium option, a 90% cap on FIT-eligible PV electricity, and addition of a 52 GW PV capacity threshold – all mark an evolution of German FITs toward a “grid parity” future where policy is more flexible and may offer less TLC to investors. Indeed, in terms of “gird parity”, the cost of electricity from small PV systems in Germany is in some cases already below retail rates.

A central goal of Phase Three is to encourage renewable generators to behave more like conventional generators – chiefly, in considering the wholesale market value of the energy that they produce. Traditional FIT contracts reward the production of renewable electricity irrespective of where and when that electricity is produced. In Germany, rapid addition of wind and solar generation has resulted in the supply of electricity exceeding demand during several periods of the year, which has caused electricity market prices to plummet to zero (and below).

Overview of the EEG 2012: Recent Policy Changes

The EEG 2012 also sets a new renewable electricity target of at least 35% by 2020 which replaces the prev ious mandate of at least 30% by 2020 introduced in the previous EEG (“EEG 2009”). In addition, the EEG 2012 codifies longer-term renewable electricity targets of at least 50% by 2030, 65% by 2040 and 80% by 2050.11 The other major changes made in the EEG2012 and June PV Amendment include:

. Revisions to FIT compensation rates. The FIT rates paid to generators have been revised downward (except for geothermal, offshore wind and biomass), in order to reflect market conditions and place downward price pressure on developers and manufacturers.

. Revisions to FIT degression rates. The German government increased the degression rates

for biomass, on- and offshore wind, geothermal, and solar PV, thus placing additional downward pressure on prices. Solar PV, which is explained in further detail in Section IV, still