German wind energy market “threatening to implode”

German wind farm [image credit: Dirk Ingo Franke / Wikipedia]

If the flood of subsidies looks like turning to a trickle, the backers of renewables soon get cold feet – in Germany at least, as Pierre Gosselin explains (via GWPF).

While Germany likes to fancy itself as being among the “global leaders” in tackling climate change by expanding green energies, the country has in fact taken very little action recently to back up the appearances.

If anything, Germany is more in the green energy retreat mode. There are good reasons for this.

German flagship business daily “Handelsblatt” reported yesterday how Germany’s wind energy market is now “threatening to implode” and as a result “thousands of jobs are at risk”.

José Luis Blanco, CEO of German wind energy giant Nordex, blames the market chaos on “policymakers changing the rules”. Subsidies have been getting cut back substantially. The problem, Blanco says, is that worldwide green energy subsidies are being capped and wind parks as a result are no longer looking profitable to investors.

The Handelsblatt writes that “things have never been this bad”.

50% drop in new German parks

The online Hasepost reports that while in 2016 some 4600 megawatts of new German wind power capacity were installed onshore, the figure will fall almost 50% to 2450 megawatts of new power by 2019. The fall could even be greater.

Source: German Wind Energy Market “Threatening To Implode” | The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)