German government has unveiled an ambitious strategy for a drastic acceleration in the expansion of renewable energy to reach 80% by 2030 and legislation changes that ease the installation of new capacities as Europe’s biggest economy sees its climate targets at risk. According to climate protection minister Robert Habeck, the measures taken until now are insufficient and Germany needs to treble its emission cuts to reach carbon neutrality by 2045. To close the gap, Habeck presented a plan last week, under which onshore wind capacity will more than double to exceed 100 GW by 2030 with annual deployment set to reach about 10 GW in the last few years of the decade. To remove a major obstacle to the more rapid progress of onshore wind, Berlin will introduce a new Onshore Wind Law that will designate 2% of the country’s area for the installation of turbines. By the end of 2020, some 0.8% of Germany’s territory was set aside for turbines but requirements related to the approval process and the minimum distance between turbines cut this share to only 0.5%.
A package of measures is meant to ensure that Germany’s solar capacity reaches 200 GW in 2030. These include improvement around landlord-to-tenant electricity, higher tender volumes for solar and designation of more areas for ground-mounted plants. In addition, the installation of solar systems will be made mandatory for all new commercial buildings and will become the standard for new private buildings. The solar energy expansion will speed up over the decade to reach 20 GW annually in the period 2028 – 2030. As unveiled in the coalition agreement in November, offshore wind power capacity in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea is set to reach at least 30 GW by 2030 and exceed 70 GW by 2045. The development of a green hydrogen economy is expected to play a crucial role in Germany’s path to carbon neutrality. The country will seek to add 10 GW of electrolysis capacity by 2030 in order to achieve market ramp-up. This is twice as much as the previous target. To reach this goal, the National Hydrogen Strategy will be revised in the course of this year and the expansion of green hydrogen production will be supported through more funding programmes and carbon contracts for difference.