Germany's "Renewable Energy Law" was introduced in April 2000. Its predecessor was the "Compulsory Transmission Act," which came into force in 1991. The "Renewable Energy Law" is a programmatic regulation for the development and use of renewable energy, strengthening energy conservation and environmental protection, and has been revised and supplemented several times as time goes by and the situation changes. In 2009, the new "Renewable Energy Law" set a target of 30% of Germany's renewable energy consumption in electricity consumption by 2020. The basic policy guideline of the German Renewable Energy Law is that renewable energy is given priority access at a fixed rate. That is, the grid operator must acquire the renewable energy supplier's electricity at a fixed rate prescribed by law. At the same time, the electricity supplier then determines the electricity price based on the total renewable energy and traditional energy costs of the grid. In this way, although the current cost of renewable energy is still higher than traditional energy sources, the “Renewable Energy Law†provides the same opportunities for renewable energy as traditional energy; plus there are other aspects of renewable energy, the development risk can be greatly reduce.
The important contents of the revised “Renewable Energy Law†in 2009 include: 1. To increase the price, adjust the subsidy price standard for renewable energy. For example, if the price of renewable energy at the lowest level is increased from 7.87 euro cents per kilowatt-hour to 9.30 euro cents, other important adjustments include the increase in land-based wind power price from 8.03 euro cents per kilowatt-hour to 9.2 euro cents, and the ocean wind power price from every kilowatt hour. 8.92 Euro points were raised to 13-15 Euro cents, after which the annual price was lowered by 5%; the PV (PV) energy price was reduced to 33-43 Euro cents, in 2010 it decreased by 8%-10%, and then decreased by 9% every year. 2. Lower the depreciation of the new item's network price every year. The reason for the decline in the annual price of new projects is that with the increase in production volume, technological progress and learning effects, the cost of renewable energy supply will decline. In 2009, Germany reduced the rate of the entry of most new items into the Internet from the original annual limit of 2% to 1% (except for special provisions). 3. Provide incentives and penalties for power supply quality and technical requirements.
On March 3, 2010, when the German Federal Cabinet approved the revised draft of the “Renewable Energy Law,†it stated that given that current PV equipment prices have fallen by nearly 40%, the future subsidies for solar power generation should be compatible with the market development situation. The on-grid tariff for rooftop solar equipment was reduced by 16%; the on-grid tariff for open space was reduced by 11%; for the other, it was reduced by 15%. This regulation will be submitted to the German Federal Parliament and will come into effect on July 1, 2010. (This is not included in the list of previously installed grids and it will still be implemented as originally specified). In addition, in the future, the government will increase subsidies for the use of photovoltaic equipment to generate electricity for its own use (that is, for its own use without loss), with an increase in the per-kilowatt subsidy from 3 Euro cents to 8 Euro cents (subsidy on a meter basis). The people are more actively involved in climate protection operations.
According to the German Federal Ministry of Environmental Protection, the number of jobs created by the renewable energy industry alone is 160,000 in 2004, reaching 235,000 in 2006 and rising to 280,000 in 2008, and it is expected to climb to 310,000 by 2020 or 350,000. According to a German research report, by 2030, the value of environmental protection industry in Germany will reach 1 trillion euros. By then, it will surpass the machinery and automobile industries to become Germany's largest industry. At present, the energy-saving and environmental protection industry in Germany has stimulated the demand for engineers, project developers, and workers, and can create 15,000 new jobs every year. The report pointed out that by 2020, the number of people employed by the German environmental protection industry will exceed 350,000, which will overtake the automobile and machinery industries and become Germany's largest source of employment. As a new “economic growth point†and “employment engineâ€, the energy-saving and environmental protection industry has become increasingly prominent.
In order to turn the huge economic and employment potential of the energy-saving and environmental protection industry into reality, the German government has continuously promoted the development of new cultivation policies, and has spent huge sums of money to provide financial support to stimulate the company's commitment to developing new technologies and developing new industries. Under this strategic guidance, Germany’s energy conservation, environmental protection, and emission reduction measures penetrate into all areas of production and life, from improving energy efficiency to making full use of renewable energy, from developing environmentally friendly vehicles to advocating building energy conservation and emission reduction, from the production process to Details of life, energy saving and environmental protection go hand in hand.
In order to promote the development of renewable energy, Germany has introduced a series of incentive policies and measures. For example, any renewable energy project can be subsidized by government funds. For small-scale solar equipment, the government gives a certain amount of financial subsidies. For large projects, the government provides preferential policies, even as part of the amount of subsidies, developers do not need to return. There is a one-time subsidy for home solar systems. For example: From 2006 to 2009, the Federal Government of Germany approved the provision of 120 million euros for the research of wind energy projects, and about 150 projects benefited from it. These include the North Sea Offshore Wind Park Project, Fraunhofer Wind Energy Research and Energy System Technology Project (FHG-IWES). Beihai Offshore Wind Park has 12 wind turbines installed, with an investment of 100 billion euros. It can create 30,000 jobs for 50,000 households and the government will provide 50 million euros for the financial support of a study.