Germany Pledges 200 Billion Euros for Green Projects

Energiewende is the German word for 'energy turnaround'. It describes Germany’s attempt to change to a reliable, environmentally sound energy supply. The term was first coined in the title of a magazine in 1980. However, the transition hasn’t been easy, and I think most people would say the country has made some big mistakes, especially when it stopped building new nuclear plants in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, meaning it had to rely on dirty coal, Russian gas and imported nuclear-generated electricity from France. Despite that, the country has been making good progress in implementing the renewable generation that would replace non-renewable sources. In just under 30 years, the country has reduced its carbon output by a third in a time when the economy has quadrupled. Now, the change may come even faster.

Germany had originally planned to move to being almost completely powered by renewable energy by 2050. Now thanks to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the country’s new coalition government, which includes a strong quota of five ministers from the Green party, Germany has decided to bring that target forward fifteen years to 2035, while suspending approval for the Nordsteam 2 pipeline that was scheduled to start bringing gas from Russia this year. To help with that transition, the government has pledged euro 200 billion to be spent between now and 2026 to fund projects for climate protection, hydrogen technology and the expansion of the EV charging network. The country will also attempt to cut its reliance on Russian gas usage in the short term by building infrastructure that will assist in the import of liquefied natural gas, while boosting its investment in renewable energy production.

The investment in renewable production has very ambitious targets. By 2030, Germany wants to almost quadruple its solar generation to 200GW and its offshore wind to 30GW. The country wants to go even further with onshore wind, increasing it by five times, from 20GW to 100GW. The newly introduced targets also wish to eliminate coal usage over the same period. It will be a difficult task as Germany is one of the heaviest consumers of coal in Europe, with around 25% of its power still generated from coal. To meet those demanding targets, rooftop solar installations will be mandatory on all new commercial buildings and close to mandatory on new-build residential buildings.

While part of the reason for the acceleration in Germany’s Energiewende is unfortunate, the overall ambition behind the new plan is admirable, especially the country’s determination to stop its coal consumption. Hopefully other countries can follow Germany’s example and speed up their own plans to move to renewables.