A majority of German parties agreed on Monday to adopt fixes to the country’s energy policy framework, including cuts to solar subsidies during negative price periods.
The remains of Germany’s coalition government – the centre-left SPD and the Greens – is unable to command a majority in parliament, leaving it reliant on support from other parties.
But the government found a deal with the the centre-right CDU to tweak the country’s power laws, in the last full working week of the German parliament before 8 February elections.
The agreed changes will strip government subsidies from owners of solar panels when prices become negative – when electricity supply exceeds demand and threatens to overhwhelm the grid, which can occur during particularly sunny periods.
“There is… a functioning majority beyond the AfD in the German Bundestag” for the measures, said the SPD’s Verena Hubertz. Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz from the CDU described “reasonable” discussions with the government.
The deal also includes a plan to translate the EU’s new CO2 tariff, known as CBAM, into German law. There are centre-right calls to limit the law’s scope – so its implementation in Germany will come as relief to Brussels.
Other aspects cover restrictions on wind turbine permitting, the extension of special permits for power plants that generate both electricity and heat, and measures to boost the country’s lagging smart meter rollout.
Industry association BDEW said the compromise was “good news for the energy transition.”
It may also be good news for Germany’s political culture, showing that agreement across the party divide is still possible. In a similar episode before Christmas, CDU leader Merz had intervened to push through the abolishment of a controversial gas tariff.
[DC/OM]
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