Articles by
Karl-friedrich Lenz
Enemies of Wind Organize in Germany
By
Karl-friedrich Lenz
Daniel Wetzel at WELT reports on a new nationwide anti-wind organization recently founded in Germany. The name of the new lobby group is “Vernunftkraft” (reason power). I am not linking to them, but I think that’s an interesting name.
Feed-in Tariff and Minimum Wage: Both are NOT State Aid
By
Karl-friedrich Lenz
In the same way, the feed-in tariff sets a “minimum wage” for solar, wind, and other renewable energy. That means that buyers of that electricity need to pay more than under a model that would leave all prices purely to market forces.
German Government Just Sued the EU Commission over FITs
By
Karl-friedrich Lenz
The German government just announced that they have sued against the EU Commission decision to open a “state aid” procedure against the German feed-in tariff law.
German Government on Almunia Power Grab Attempt
By
Karl-friedrich Lenz
The German Government is also critical of the substance of the draft guidelines. They say that it is too early for transiting to an auction model immediately. - See more at: http://k.lenz.name/LB/?p=10401#sthash.ei6juoBo.dpuf
EU Feed-in Tariff Guidelines
By
Karl-friedrich Lenz
So, in short, the proposals in these “Guidelines” should be firmly rejected. And just as a matter of law, Germany is in no way obliged to follow these Guidelines, since the German feed-in tariff system is not state aid in the first place.
European Court of Justice “Vent De Colère!” Challenge to French FITs
By
Karl-friedrich Lenz
Anyway, it is quite clear from the new decision that the PreussenElektra standard still stands. And if the present German system in some way or other leaves the area of “purchase by means of their own financial resources”, there are two possible answers to solving that problem.
Solar Costs Known, Nuclear Costs Unknown
By
Karl-friedrich Lenz
As Komaneff points out in detail, the cost of nuclear projects are hard to understand exactly. That’s because it takes a long time to build a nuclear power plant. Lots of things can and do go wrong in that long process. Recent experiences with projects Vogtle and Olkiluoto, Finland show that cost estimates with nuclear tend to be unreliable. And in most cases, costs go up later. - See more at: http://k.lenz.name/LB/?p=10044#sthash.RSJ4NXBx.dpuf
Enemy of Renewable Energy FDP Out of German Bundestag
By
Karl-friedrich Lenz
With the FDP out, that leaves exactly zero parties in the Bundestag supporting the proposal of replacing the successful feed-in tariff with a renewable portfolio standard, recently floated again by the Monopolkommission. It didn’t have a chance anyway, but this election result makes that point even clearer.
Lenz Blog: Renewable Reducing Electricity Prices in Germany
By
Karl-friedrich Lenz
One of the topics in this election season is the price of electricity. There is a lot of confusion around. Many people don’t understand that the renewable revolution caused by the German feed-in tariff model has lowered prices. - See more at: http://k.lenz.name/LB/#sthash.gLSrcO2Y.dpuf
Lenz Blog: EU Solar Anti-Dumping Case Great News for the Climate
By
Karl-friedrich Lenz
That in turn means that the solar panels not sold in the EU because of such a measure would need to be sold somewhere else, increasing supply on all non-EU markets. Which in turn means even lower prices for solar panels in markets that are set for explosive growth anyway (China, Japan, India). That would be great news for the climate.
Lenz Blog: Japan as Number One Solar Market
By
Karl-friedrich Lenz
One thing we can learn from that is that feed-in tariffs work to get things done. This new development of course happened because Japan finally put a feed-in tariff system into place from last July on, with rather attractive rates starting out.
