As Germany heads to the polls on February 23rd, gray winter weather has become a hot topic in the campaign due to its impact on the country's depressed green energy movement.
Twice in the past few months electricity prices have temporarily risen in Europe's main economy due to a lack of sunlight and wind to power their solar panels and turbines.
The phenomenon – known as a “dark hole” – briefly sent the price up to 936 euros ($972) per megawatt hour on December 12, twelve times higher than the average for the previous weeks.
Conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz, who expects the CSU/CDU to win the elections, seized the opportunity to attack centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
In the interconnected energy market of Europe, Merz told Scholz that “your energy policies are setting teeth throughout the European Union, which is very angry with Germany”.
The idea was rejected by the Greens, who have long been the political driving force behind Germany's move away from fossil fuels and nuclear power and towards clean renewable energy.
Greens Vice-Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck hit back that previous CDU/CSU-led governments under Angela Merkel had been “blind” to Germany's energy challenges.
To help fight climate change, Germany has pledged to eliminate fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030 from 1990 levels, and be carbon neutral by mid-century.
– 'At the end' –
The recent price spikes forced some of Germany's most energy-efficient companies to limit or even stop production.
In the event on December 12, Germany bought electricity at the European Energy Exchange in Leipzig, causing price increases in neighboring countries.
At the same time the German energy sector is ringing alarm bells.
Markus Kreber, the head of the largest energy supplier RWE, said that the recent reduction in renewable supply “would not have been managed on another day with a higher peak load, for example in January”.
He warned that the system is currently operating “at its limits”.
The situation after the latest downturn soon worsened as renewable production picked up again, while households and most businesses remained protected from day-to-day price fluctuations by fixed tariffs.
The Scholz government defended the green energy movement despite the occasional “temporary phenomenon” of dark talent that could drive up prices on the spot market.
“There are periods when the sun shines a lot, the wind blows a lot, and electricity is produced very cheaply in Germany, which is then happily exported and providing electricity to neighboring countries,” said spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.
Renewables have become an increasingly important part of Germany's energy mix, accounting for an average of 60 percent of its electricity output so far this year.
Traditional energy sources are being depleted, with coal-fired power stations gradually closing after the three nuclear power stations were taken off the grid last year.
– Political paralysis –
But many experts say that the world's third largest economy cannot afforda
Analysts say Germany needs to increase energy storage capacity and develop other sources of production, such as gas and hydrogen, to pick up the slack when needed.
“If the state establishes a good regulatory framework, it should be possible to avoid shortages through investment in storage and flexibility in supply,” said Georg Zachmann, an energy and climate expert at the Bruegel think tank. to AFP.
However, he said there was “a serious concern that the framework will not be sufficient to develop the necessary infrastructure quickly.
“On average it takes seven years to build a wind power facility but only seven months to build a liquefied natural gas terminal,” said Claudia Kemfert, an energy expert at the DIW institute. “It should be the other way around.”
For now, Germany faces months of political paralysis following the collapse of Scholz's three-way coalition government.
The collapse of the coalition also means that a key draft law will be scrapped for a project to build a network of gas and hydrogen power stations as part of the move away from coal.
A new government is likely to take several months to emerge after the February election and then establish its own energy policy.
Frontrunner Merz has already pledged to explore a return to nuclear power.
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