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Renewable Energy Policy: Risk Hedging Is Taking Center Stage

The costs of renewable energy technologies have fallen sharply. Now the financing costs of new installations are playing an increasing role in the overall cost of Germany’s energy transition. This has put the primary focus of support instruments for renewable energy on creating more affordable financing conditions for investments. This report compares the effects of various policy instruments on risk ...

Leakage Protection for Carbon-Intensive Materials Post-2020

Climate protection is a global challenge that all countries have a common but differentiated responsibility to address. However, not all governments are willing to commit to targets of equal stringency, and individual countries may put different emphases on carbon pricing in their policy mix. Carbon prices may thus continue to differ over longer time horizons. Therefore, measures to protect production ...

Combining Dynamic Allocation and Inclusion of Consumption into the EU ETS Would Be Beneficial: Six Questions to Karsten Neuhoff

Modernization and Innovation in the Materials Sector: Lessons from Steel and Cement

Since 2007, the European cement and steel sectors have been characterized by substantial surplus production capacity. Hence re-investment in primary production of many materials remains limited and endangers the longer-term economic viability of many plants. Opportunities for innovation and modernization could overcome these challenges. They are linked to new demands for more efficient and lower-carbon ...

Market Incentives for System-Friendly Designs of Wind Turbines

Up until now, wind turbines have been designed to generate electricity at the lowest possible total cost, independent of this electricity’s market value. With an increasing penetration of wind power in the system, the market value of electricity generated by wind turbines is declining, since wind turbines tend to produce electricity at the same time. For this reason, it will be important in the future ...

Direct Marketing of Renewable Energy Creates New Risks for Investors: Eight Questions to Karsten Neuhoff

Mandatory Direct Marketing of Wind Power Increases Financing Costs

The 2014 reform of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (Erneuerbare-Energien- Gesetz, or EEG) entailed that a mandatory direct marketing of green electricity be introduced. According to this law, operators of larger wind turbines must sell their electricity production on the electricity market. In addition to the wholesale price they receive a floating market premium, which is based on the average market ...

Investment in Building Energy Efficiency: Climate Fund to Increase Rate of Refurbishment: Six Questions to Karsten Neuhoff

Using Equity Capital to Unlock Investment in Building Energy Efficiency?

The energy transition will require considerable increases in energy efficiency, particularly in residential buildings. Financial support mechanisms, information and adviceprograms and dedicated training and certification of craftsmen are already in place to stimulate energy efficiency investment. Nevertheless, the required annual rate of thermal building refurbishment of around two percent is so far ...

Energy Transition Calls for High Investment

Achieving the objectives of the German governments 2010 Energy Concept and the accelerated phase-out of nuclear energy will require significant investment in restructuring energy supply. In particular, this includes investment in installations for the use of renewable energy sources in the power and heating sector, as well as in the infrastructure, such as power grids. In addition, substantial investment ...