Germany’s economy & climate ministry announces 80% Renewable Electricity Target.
Last week, the German government approved a new package of measures to speed up the expansion of renewable energy. Previously, the German government had a target of 65% of energy to be clean energy by 2030. With this new commitment, the goal is for 80% of energy to be clean energy by 2030. As of April this year, just under 41% of Germany’s power consists of clean energy.
This shift to a more ambitious goal was motivated by a need to phase out dependency on Russian oil and natural gas imports given the conflicts in Ukraine.
In April of this year, Economics Minister Robert Habeck told reporters from Reuters:
On the one hand, the climate crisis is coming to a head. On the other hand, Russia’s invasion shows how important it is to phase out fossil fuels and promote the expansion of renewables.
This new package, called the Renewable Energy Sources Act identifies clean energy as the interest of public safety and is a push to accelerate Germany phasing out coal and transitioning to not only renewable energy, but reaching carbon neutral by 2045 as well. This package was formalized into law on July 7th. This new package is set to focus on Solar PV and strict wind power expansion targets
As outlined in ESG Today, “The package includes plans for onshore wind power to increase by 10 GW per year, reaching 115 GW of capacity by 2030, solar to more than double to 215 GW by 2030, with 22 GW to be added per year, offshore wind to grow to 30 GW by 2030, 40 GW by 2035, and 70 GW by 2045.
Additionally, by 2032 at the latest, 2% of Germany’s land area will be set aside for onshore wind power, under the new package.”
Economics Minister Robert Habeck comments:
“The sheer number and scope of the bills alone show how important energy and energy security have become for Germany and for Europe – how important they are for the security, freedom and prosperity of our republic. We have decided on the biggest acceleration package for the expansion of renewables in decades. We will almost double the share of renewable energy in gross electricity consumption within less than a decade.”
Sources:
Photo by Maheshkumar Painam on Unsplash
https://electrek.co/2022/04/06/germany-boosts-clean-energy-target-to-80-from-65-by-2030/#:~:text=Germany's%20economy%20and%20climate%20ministry,mix%20consists%20of%20clean%20energy.
https://www.esgtoday.com/germany-enshrines-80-renewable-electricity-target-into-law/
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-present-renewable-energy-expansion-measures-2022-04-05/
