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Merkel: we will meet green energy goals

Published: 3 Nov 12 11:48 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20121103-45949.html

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday she was determined to push forward with a plan for rapidly expanding Germany’s renewable energy supply, despite criticism from within her own government.

She met her coalition partners for an “energy summit” at her office in Berlin on Friday and demanded that prices must remain “affordable” and there must be no interruptions in supply, but the tempo of expanding renewables should not be slowed.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported how plans to expand renewable energy had recently come under attack from within Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) coalition with some members complaining that rapidly expanding renewable energy was too expensive to support.

Guidelines set by the government require a four person household to pay roughly €60 more annually to support renewables.

Economics Minister Philipp Rösler, leader of the FPD, called that an “alarming signal” and called for a thorough reform of the system.

By contrast CSU leader Horst Seehofer said Germany could even achieve its renewable energy goals sooner than expected. The government is aiming to make renewables account for 35 percent of the country’s energy by 2020 and it is already at 25 percent.

But a rapid reform is not in sight, the paper said, as the federal and state governments agreed on Friday to a “national dialogue” to come up with appropriate solutions.

“You can imagine that it won’t be easy,” Merkel said, but reiterated her commitment to energy generation change which she said everyone involved was also signed up to.

The Local/mw

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

14:39 November 3, 2012 by MattyB
Forward into poverty and debt!
15:08 November 3, 2012 by pepsionice
What Frau Merkel already knows...is that she'll be gone in roughly four years, and it's likely that the SPD will take the leadership role from 2017 on, for at least four years. They will have to admit in public within a year or two after taking charge....that renewable energy is still a decade....maybe two decades from really taking off. Everyone will stand around in shock and ask how this is possible....especially since the SPD has talking the same talk as Merkel for three decades. All they can do is grin and admit renewable energy was all bogus talk.
07:39 November 4, 2012 by ChrisRea
I wonder why energy-saving solutions like LED street lights are not promoted more. I recently read about a 3000+ people community in Romania that is using exclusively this technology since November 2010 and registered savings of 76% (400 lamps costing a total of 215,000 $). The amortisation period is only 3 years and the foreseen lifespan is up to 35 years. I think I heard also about a community in Baden-Württemberg doing the same thing and that in the UK there is a strong governmental support.
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