> As most countries struggle to install clean energy fast enough, Germany tackled the industry’s toughest problem: slow permitting.
> Germany has pursued the most aggressive permitting reforms across Europe since 2022, which shows in its renewables buildout
This is exactly the kind of thing I expect from a coalition government of greens and FDP and I feel like this needs to be celebrated a lot more. The economy was globally bad in 2022 and 2023 and Germany was hit especially hard because of its energy dependence on Russian gas which was a result of the CDU government.
But Germany’s hard decisions and reforms in energy put it on a pretty good path relative to others once financial easing starts. Energy is bedrock of a lot of the economy and energy independence and abundance can unlock a lot of things for the Germans.
The German liberals should be happy about this and celebrate it.
I suspect there are a bunch of other reforms that will only show effects after some time has passed and financial environment is easy again.
!ping GER&ECO
neolthrowaway on
>Talk to renewable-energy executives for long enough and almost everyone will complain about the time it takes to get government permits to build their power plants. Unless you’re operating in Germany these days.
>“We’re quite pleased,” said Karsten Brüggemann, vice president of Nordex, which manufactures wind turbines. Particularly since 2022, he said, Nordex has seen a rapid rise in the number of turbines deployed and future wind farms permitted.
>Germany has been among the countries hardest hit by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which forced it to quickly wean itself off Russian gas. The urgency translated into building more import facilities for liquefied natural gas, to speeding up renewable installations.
>Solar and wind projects across Europe had at the time been stymied by bureaucracy. The time it took to get permits had doubled since 2017. In Germany, securing approvals for one 2022 project to erect three wind turbines required 36,000 pages of documentation printed out and handed to the authorities.
>Since then, German red tape has been drastically reduced, according to interviews with renewable-energy executives. In just over two years, the country is now deploying more renewables than any other European peer. “We are experiencing a significant increase in renewable electricity generation,” said Fiete Wulff, a spokesperson for Germany’s Federal Network Agency, which is responsible for regulating electricity and other markets.
>Reforms Payoff
>Germany has pursued the most aggressive permitting reforms across Europe since 2022, which shows in its renewables buildout
Big Oil stopped being greedy in Germany. But we can’t get complacent. To head off the “renewable” barons we should implement 5 year environmental studies now.
4 Comments
> As most countries struggle to install clean energy fast enough, Germany tackled the industry’s toughest problem: slow permitting.
> Germany has pursued the most aggressive permitting reforms across Europe since 2022, which shows in its renewables buildout
This is exactly the kind of thing I expect from a coalition government of greens and FDP and I feel like this needs to be celebrated a lot more. The economy was globally bad in 2022 and 2023 and Germany was hit especially hard because of its energy dependence on Russian gas which was a result of the CDU government.
But Germany’s hard decisions and reforms in energy put it on a pretty good path relative to others once financial easing starts. Energy is bedrock of a lot of the economy and energy independence and abundance can unlock a lot of things for the Germans.
The German liberals should be happy about this and celebrate it.
I suspect there are a bunch of other reforms that will only show effects after some time has passed and financial environment is easy again.
!ping GER&ECO
>Talk to renewable-energy executives for long enough and almost everyone will complain about the time it takes to get government permits to build their power plants. Unless you’re operating in Germany these days.
>“We’re quite pleased,” said Karsten Brüggemann, vice president of Nordex, which manufactures wind turbines. Particularly since 2022, he said, Nordex has seen a rapid rise in the number of turbines deployed and future wind farms permitted.
>Germany has been among the countries hardest hit by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which forced it to quickly wean itself off Russian gas. The urgency translated into building more import facilities for liquefied natural gas, to speeding up renewable installations.
>Solar and wind projects across Europe had at the time been stymied by bureaucracy. The time it took to get permits had doubled since 2017. In Germany, securing approvals for one 2022 project to erect three wind turbines required 36,000 pages of documentation printed out and handed to the authorities.
>Since then, German red tape has been drastically reduced, according to interviews with renewable-energy executives. In just over two years, the country is now deploying more renewables than any other European peer. “We are experiencing a significant increase in renewable electricity generation,” said Fiete Wulff, a spokesperson for Germany’s Federal Network Agency, which is responsible for regulating electricity and other markets.
>Reforms Payoff
>Germany has pursued the most aggressive permitting reforms across Europe since 2022, which shows in its renewables buildout
https://preview.redd.it/n1h7a93lzbld1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=21a1bf28056e5dd7bf9e582434f6271f52e37f83
Big Oil stopped being greedy in Germany. But we can’t get complacent. To head off the “renewable” barons we should implement 5 year environmental studies now.
It’s worth noting that Germany today [consumes less total power than it did in 1990](https://www.cleanenergywire.org/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_image/public/paragraphs/images/fig2-gross-power-production-germany-1990-2023.png?itok=jIz8-qgu). So, renewables are essentially replacing other forms of power generation (including nuclear), and not really increasing the total power production even though the nameplate generation capacity is at an all time high.