© Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy; Offshore Wind Energy Act (WindSeeG) bill; 2021 Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) bill

More renewables for better mitigation of climate change

The amendment of the RES Act will enable the auction volumes for the respective types of renewables up to 2030 to be determined clearly and transparently. The declared goal: to raise the share of renewable energy in gross electricity consumption to 65% by 2030.

The expansion of renewable energy in Germany is to grow dynamically up to 2030. The expansion volumes specified in the draft amendment to the RES Act and the amendment of the Offshore Wind Energy Act (WindSeeG) extend right through to the upper end of the range set out in the 2030 Climate Action Programme (in German only), and even beyond this level for photovoltaics. The aim is to raise the share of renewable energy in gross electricity consumption to 65% by 2030, and that it continues to be just as climate-friendly thereafter. This is because Germany’s long-term goal is now for 100% of the electricity generated and consumed in Germany to be greenhouse-gas neutral by 2050. This new target is also enshrined in the RES Act amendment.

In order to achieve the goal of 100% green electricity by 2050, renewables need to continue to grow strongly over the next ten years. When it comes to onshore wind, the new RES Act bill therefore specifies annual auction volumes of between 2.9 and 5.8 gigawatts (GW) for wind, of between 1.95 and 2.15 GW for photovoltaics, and 500 megawatts (MW) for biomass. This is in addition to the 500 to 850 MW from the innovation auctions (in German only), and the photovoltaics and biomass installations that receive fixed rates of funding. Innovation auctions can be used to test both the technical innovation as well as the way in which the auction is designed. Unlike onshore wind, the expansion of offshore wind is regulated not in the RES Act, but in the Offshore Wind Energy Act (WindSeeG, in German only), which has also been revised. Here, annual auction volumes of between around one and three and a half gigawatts are envisaged up to 2025, with the aim of achieving an installed capacity of 20 gigawatts by 2030.

The installed capacity of onshore wind is expected to increase from 54 GW today to 71 GW in 2030, and the installed capacity of photovoltaics from 52 GW to 100 GW in the same period. By 2030, onshore wind is expected to contribute up to 145 terawatt hours (TWh) to the 65% renewables target. Some 94 TWh of electricity is expected to be provided by photovoltaics and around 80 TWh from offshore wind.

Should the European Union go on to adopt specific new expansion targets for renewable energy as part of implementation of the Green Deal, the expansion targets set out in the draft amendment to the RES Act will also have to be adjusted accordingly.