Germany revels in renewables success

The UK renewable energy industry has called upon MPs and businesses to support a new clause added to the Energy Bill by Labour MP Alan Simpson that would introduce a feed in tariff (FIT) to incentivise the installation of onsite renewable energy technologies.

Leonie Green of the Renewable Energy Association said that the new clause would be voted on at the end of the month and had already secured support from a number of high profile MPs, including Conservative shadow business secretary Alan Duncan and former Labour environment minister Michael Meacher.

"The new clause would allow for a FIT-plus that, like the German model, would offer above market rates for electricity sold to the grid from renewable energy sources, but could also support renewable heat and gas," she said. "The government has made some noises indicating that it is more open to the idea than before, but we still need support from MPs and businesses."

The proposal comes in the wake of new figures from the German government, highlighting the success of its approach.

A study last month from the German Federal Environment Ministry showed that renewable electricity generation in the country grew by a fifth last year and now accounts for over 14.2 per cent of gross electricity consumption. Renewables' share of energy consumption also rose to 8.5 per cent last year saving approximately 110m tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The rapid expansion in the German renewables sector has also had huge economic benefits with the government report confirming employement in the sector has almost doubled since 2004 to 249,000 jobs. It also found that turnover from the installation and operation of renewable energy plants in Germany rose by nearly 10 per cent last year to approximately €24.6 billion.

The figures prompted the ministry to upgrade its projections for the sector, estimating that it will provide up to 400,000 jobs by 2020.

"The German government has a number of policies in place to promote renewables, but the feed in tariff sits at the cornerstone of everything," explained Greene. "It is costing each household around €3 to run and has resulted in a booming renewables industry – the government is estimating that by 2030 it'll be as big as the car making sector in Germany, which employs 710,000 people."

In contrast, the UK generates around two per cent of its energy from renewable sources and according to a new report from research firm Cambridge Econometrics is likely to fall substantially short of EU targets to generate 15 per cent of its energy from renewables.

"Based on current policies and incentives we predict the government will hit its target to generate 20 per cent of electricity from renewables by 2020," said Philip Summerton, an Economist with Cambridge Econometrics' energy and environment team. "But at the moment hardly anything is being done to encourage renewable heat and very little is being done on biofuels, which means we are on track to fall dangerously short of the EU targets for renewable energy."