The promotion and maintenance of renewable energy plants is essential for the energy turnaround. But what does the future hold for green energy sources after the end of the 20-year compensation phase under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG)? Subsidies for existing plants will gradually end from 2021, and many operators will have to ask themselves whether it is still economically viable to continue operating their plants at all.
This can quickly bring wind energy to a standstill. A standstill that can take the wind out of the sails of the energy transition. The sticking point lies in the marketing of electricity on the electricity exchange. According to the portal energiezukunft, after the end of the EEG remuneration for green electricity on the electricity exchange only electricity prices around 2.5 cents can be earned. Compared to the compensation rates of the EEG, this is only a drop in the bucket - the compensation is currently still twice as high.
According to Handelsblatt, it is possible that wind turbines as green energy suppliers could gradually disappear from the landscape. According to a survey by the specialist agency Windenenergie und Land, turbine operators will only continue to operate economically safe turbines.
The opportunity in the dilemma
But other players in the energy industry also see opportunities in this negative scenario. According to Handelsblatt, the green power label holder Naturstrom acquired a stake in the energy service provider Stiegewind at the beginning of the year. This step is intended to ensure further production of green electricity from old plants and also to establish new marketing concepts.
But other players also have the opportunity to secure the continued operation of old plants and to derive completely new business models from them.
How this can succeed for municipal utilities, among others, will be explained by Karl Weber (ASEW) at the 6th Energy Transition Forum of the Green Electricity Label on October 28 in Bonn. Karl Weber is thus only one of four speakers who will shed light on this topic at the event. In addition, marketing concepts of post-EEG plants will be examined from different angles at the Energy Transition Forum and, among other things, perspectives for regional energy suppliers will be presented.
In two further thematic forums, the energy market of tomorrow and sector coupling as well as system integration will be discussed from different perspectives.