Germany approves €500m electric car investment plan

She may have previously angered environmentalists by lobbying for a relaxation in the EU's vehicle emission standards, but German chancellor Angela Merkel went some way to rebuilding bridges with green car enthusiasts last week with the unveiling of one of the world's most ambitious electric car strategies.

According to a version of the new National Development Plan on Electric Mobility seen by Bloomberg News, the German government is to invest €500m (£434m) in electric car development by 2011 as part of a strategy designed to put one million electric vehicles on German roads by 2020.

The 53-page document, which is being seen as evidence of a rare display of unity from Merkel's coalition government in the run-up to next month's elections, also features proposals to roll out "an efficient infrastructure" for electric cars and sets the ambitious target of having five million cars operating by 2030.

The proposals are likely to be welcomed by Germany's auto giants, many of whom are currently investing heavily in developing electric vehicles.

BMW for example is soon to launch its first electric car in the form of the Mini E, while Daimler recently inked a deal with Tesla that will see the US electric car specialist provide batteries for its planned electric Smart Car.

"We're facing a paradigm change in the automobile industry," transport minister Wolfgang Tiefensee told a news conference in Berlin. "It's our goal to reduce energy consumption and explore new energy sources if Germany wants to keep its place in the world as environmental leader."

The news came in the same week as Germany-based renewable energy developer juwi Group and US solar giant First Solar announced that their Liebrose solar farm had become Germany's largest photovoltaic plant with the installation of more than 560,000 solar modules.

The two companies said that the facility is also now the second largest PV solar farm in the world, currently boasting 53MW of capacity. The €160m project is expected to be completed by the end of the year, by which point 700,000 solar modules will have been installed.

The solar farm has been built on the largest former Soviet military training site in Germany and under the terms of the deal with the city of Brandenburg, the developers have agreed to fund for the clean up of the site.

"Lieberose is a model not just in terms of power and financing, but also in the conversion of military and other unused land," said Brandenburg minister president Matthias Platzeck. "Land that was contaminated and off limits for years is being cleared of munitions and other pollution without any financial burden on the owner of the land, the state."

And in related news, German engineering giant Siemens last week cut the ribbon on its new wind power training centre in the city of Bremen.

The company said that the new centre features a range of simulators and maintenance equipment for training wind energy technicians and will now offer courses for both Siemens staff and customers from across the world.