PV Magazine – 25 years of EEG

Time for the next system impulse

The Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) came into force on April 1, 2000 and marked the beginning of a successful transformation of the energy market in Germany. The EEG was of crucial importance for Saxovent: it enabled us to operate and grow as private players in the market.

Today, 25 years later, the EEG has done its job – the share of renewable energies in electricity consumption is almost 60%. Nevertheless, the EEG is at a turning point. The successful development now requires a new systemic impetus – not a return to subsidy logic, but a further development of the existing structures.

The EEG made competition possible and broke up the monopoly of large suppliers. But the road has been rocky – from lengthy approval procedures to sluggish grid expansion. Today, we are facing new challenges such as over-bureaucratized processes and inefficient storage integration.

What is missing now is consistent further development: the EEG should open up markets and not subsidize them. We need to better interlink generation, storage and consumption – technologically, regulatory and economically.

The solution lies in an EEG 2.0: a more holistic approach to the energy system that includes the digitalization of approval processes, an integrative regulatory framework and a sustainable electricity market design. This is the only way to successfully implement the energy transition in its entirety.

We now need the courage to think about the energy system as a whole and to further develop the existing structures in order to create an intelligent, networked and resilient energy system.