Overview
- The draft reform removes a guaranteed legal right for new wind and solar plants to feed power into the grid and allows operators to limit how much new plants may inject at times of local congestion.
- It would strip compensation for curtailed generation in regions that see more than 5 percent annual abregelung for a six-year period, a change the ministry says will steer new capacity toward parts of the network that can carry the power.
- State leaders and industry groups have sharply criticized the plan, with Bavaria’s economics minister Hubert Aiwanger warning it could wreck that state’s plan for about 1,000 turbines and other groups saying it will deter investors.
- Project financiers, including CAV Partners, say losing guaranteed grid access and payback for curtailment would raise financing risk, make bank loans harder to obtain, and could leave many planned projects uneconomic.
- The cabinet is due to consider the Netzpaket in the coming days, and critics call for fixes such as shared connections for wind and PV, regional price signals or more storage to avoid freezing the renewable build and increasing reliance on gas.