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 ...
Residential heating is responsible for one-fifth of Germany’s energy consumption. Heating costs were around 562 euros per year for an average apartment in 2016, which is more than a 13th month’s rent minus heating costs (Kaltmiete). These are the findings of the 2016 Heat Monitor, published by the German Institute for Economic Research and ista Deutschland GmbH. The report presents evaluations based ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
