The Greens have criticized a draft law from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs as a "frontal attack on the energy transition," accusing Economics Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) of obstruction. The planned network package would "spell the end of renewables," said Greens co-leader Felix Banaszak on Monday in Berlin. "The aim is to fundamentally stop it, as it is a step backwards, not forwards." As a counterproposal, the opposition party presented a ten-point plan, which they claim would accelerate the energy transition.

The background is a planned amendment to the Energy Industry Act by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which, according to the ministry, is intended to better coordinate the expansion of renewable energies with the power grid. According to the plan, new installations in certain areas would effectively lose their connection priority, and operators would have to forgo financial compensation in the event of curtailment.

This new redispatch provision is to apply in areas where more than three percent of energy had to be curtailed in the previous year. Redispatch involves reducing the electricity feed-in from power plants, including wind and solar parks, to prevent grid overload. Operators are compensated for this, with the cost borne by electricity customers. In 2024, this amounted to nearly €2.8 billion.

The Greens see this as a significant brake on investment. As a counterproposal, they presented a ten-point plan. At its core is the demand for a special tender to increase the annual expansion of onshore wind power by five gigawatts as early as 2026. According to a monitoring report for the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the target of 115 gigawatts of onshore wind power by 2030 is otherwise unlikely to be met.

GREENS: NEW GAS POWER PLANT PLANS OVERSIZED

Additionally, the Greens criticize the government's planned "completely oversized expansion" of fossil gas power plants. According to the paper, this would increase the electricity price by one to two cents per kilowatt hour through a new levy. The government plans to put out tenders for an additional twelve gigawatts of controllable power plant capacity by 2026. These are to be available by 2031 at the latest to offset fluctuations in electricity generation from solar and wind.

According to the government, the financing of the power plant expansion remains unresolved. Since the construction of such plants, which are only switched on as needed, is hardly profitable for investors, state subsidies in the billions are expected. These subsidies must be approved as state aid by the EU Commission.

(Report by Holger Hansen, edited by Sabine Ehrhardt. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economics) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)