The German Renewable Energy Association (BEE) has warned against a planned windfall tax on energy generators, announced on 4 September.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the government will use income from windfall taxes levied on electricity and producers, to fund a €65bn package to help households and companies manage rising energy prices.
According to several news reports, including the Guardian, Scholz said Germany would use income from windfall taxes on electricity producers he said were making “excessive” profits, to reduce consumer prices for gas, coal and oil.
He added that some energy companies which may not be using gas to generate electricity were “simply using the fact that the high price of gas determines the price of electricity and are therefore making a lot of money”.
The BEE said in response that interventions in the electricity market, or in financing mechanisms for renewable energy, would also “stimulate undesirable developments and can thus lead to considerable upheavals”.
The BEE pointed out the energy crisis is “caused and driven by the shortage of natural gas and is exacerbated, among other things, by the depressed, outdated and damage-prone French nuclear power plant park”.
“It is a fossil fuel supply crisis that must finally be tackled at its roots: expensive fossil and nuclear energy sources must be overcome, energy price-lowering renewable energy sources and a renewable energy market system must be expanded and expanded more quickly.
“There is a recipe for this: invest, invest, invest,” said BEE President Simone Peter.