Articles by
Craig Morris
Renewables International: “Market” makes German solar up to 30% more expensive
By
Craig Morris
Electricity from 40 to 500 kW arrays will then cost 2.64 cents per kilowatt-hour less under feed-in tariffs than under direct marketing – all in the name of phasing out feed-in tariffs in order to bring down costs and move renewables into the market. For this market segment, direct marketing makes solar power 30 percent more expensive than the feed-in tariff.
EP: Germany does not have generous subsidies for renewables
By
Craig Morris
Energy Post repeats the unfounded notion that Germany has generous subsidies. This is wrong – and the difference matters: the German system of feed-in tariffs favours small companies and cooperatives. Now, the EU wants to kill feed-in tariffs, ostensibly because of the cost – but what’s at stake is freedom.
Renewables International: How Germany’s new renewables policy will affect wind power financing
By
Craig Morris
Germany’s leading economics institute DIW has published a 36-page report in English on how the amendments to the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) will impact the cost of capital for wind power investors. They find that greater risks will increase the cost of borrowed capital – thereby making this aspect of the transition more expensive.
Renewables International: The chilling effect on energy co-ops of new German policy
By
Craig Morris
The DGRV, the umbrella organization for German energy cooperatives, has taken a survey of its members and found that a third of them have given up future investments.
Renewables International: SPD no longer the party of Hermann Scheer
By
Craig Morris
It is becoming increasingly clear that no German politician is holding the baton for renewables policy in Germany, especially after the recent amendments were approved on a Friday. Today, we take a look at who did not vote along party lines – and why.
Renewables International: The Port of Hamburg–On-site wind power is successful
By
Craig Morris
Eurogate wants to make seven million kWh available with the wind power farm and also its newly constructed combined heat and power plant (CHP). Eurogate also generates power from photovoltaic systems. Along with energy efficiency measures, Eurogate aims to achieve a full supply for the terminal and use their own power directly.
Renewables International: EEG (Germany’s Renewable Energy Act) RIP
By
Craig Morris
The Bundestag just voted overwhelmingly in favor of the governing coalition’s proposes to change the country’s renewables policy. The grand coalition of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats got 454 yeas against 123 nays and six abstentions.
Boell: Actual outcomes of auctions in France, Brazil, and the Netherlands
By
Craig Morris
In an international comparison, reverse auctions seem to be a useful way of slowing down the transition to renewables and ensuring that a small oligopoly of firms dominate the market.
Renewables International: Germany hits 50 percent solar, Ireland 50 percent wind
By
Craig Morris
Interestingly, Ireland recently saw its share of wind power peak at 50 percent of power demand, an issue that went largely unreported (why is everyone so focused on Germany?).
Renewables International: 77 percent of Swiss want nuclear phaseout
By
Craig Morris
There is broad consensus for the Swiss nuclear phaseout, even across party lines. In the latest representative survey of 1,264 households in Switzerland, a large majority of the Swiss expressed their support for the country’s nuclear phaseout, including 59 and 56 percent of those in the two parties most critical of the energy transition.
Renewables International: German state to go 100% renewable power… this year
By
Craig Morris
On the border to Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein is a largely rural state – and Germany’s windiest area. It is home to the country’s only Energiewende Minister, and it will produce as much green electricity as it consumes total electricity over the year for the first time in 2014.
Renewables International: Grid parity still doesn’t matter (but grid defection does)
By
Craig Morris
Germany is now focusing on the direct consumption of solar power, which remains prohibitively expensive. But a recent survey found that PV + storage could be competitive with power from the grid by 2020. The result could be a disastrous wave of grid defection.
