Daniel Englander
The Morning Feedstock May 16, 2008 at 6:29 AM
Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has put forward a proposal to slash that country’s solar energy subsidies by nearly 30 percent. The CDU, which is the party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, found support in a report issued by Rheinisch-Westfaelischse Institut fuer Wirtschaftsforschung, a economics research institute, that argued in the absence of a reduction, the country’s subsidy obligation would rise to €120 billion by 2035. The feed-in tariff program has accelerated capacity installation, thus speeding cost reductions in technology and installation, faster than the subsidy rate has fallen. As such, the feed-in tariff rate is beginning to diverge from technology costs faster than most policy makers had expected. The feed-in tariff currently adds €1.01 a month to the average utility bill. The German Solar Energy Association expects this to rise to €2.14 a month by 2014. However, Joachim Pfeiffer, a member of parliament from CDU, argues that costs may rise to €8 a month by that time. Pfeiffer, who has introduced legislation aimed at reducing the feed-in tariff said “We don’t want to slaughter the solar industry; we think photovoltaic technology will have a great future. But to have that future, we can’t have overkill now.”
While Germany is struggling with the future of its subsidy program, San Francisco is struggling to get one started. At the end of March, a surprise move by city Supervisor Jake McGoldrick tabled a proposed $3 million installation subsidy program aimed at homeowners and businesses. This week, the SFPUC approved a plan to buy electricity from Recurrent Energy under a 25 year PPA involving city-owned buildings. The 5 MW plan is much less ambitious than the original $3 million, 55 MW program, though it also less controversial. McGoldrick objected primarily to what he considered would be direct subsidies to affluent homeowners paid for by the city. The Recurrent plan significantly reduces upfront costs to the city while also halting subsidies to private individuals. A piece of compromise legislation introduce by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi would cut the original $3 million subsidy to $1.5 million, with half of that directed entirely towards non-profits and low income homeowners.
You want exits? We got exits. Energias de Portugal is moving ahead with plans to IPO 25 percent of its renewable energy division, in what may be the biggest float in Europe this year. EDP Renováveis is the world’s third largest renewable energy company, and joins the pattern of major European utilities spinning out their renewable arms as separate business entities. Iberdrola and EDF have both done so, and Italian energy company Enel has plans to follow suit in 2009. The IPO will be worth close to $3 billion, though EDP is offering its renewables arm at a 20 to 35 percent discount in a bid to incentivize investors to take up the offering under volatile market conditions.
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[...] Rumors spread yesterday that Germany’s Q-Cells was planning to sell its 17.9 percent stake in Renewable Energy Corporation. Q-Cells, the world’s largest solar cell manufacturer, declined to comment on the rumor that sent its stock down 3.7 percent to €73.53. Norway-based REC is currently building 1.5 GW manufacturing plant in Singapore that will combine its wafer, cell, and polysilicon fab works. It’s been a tough few weeks for Germany’s publicly traded solar, whose stocks are down across the board over investor concerns that the CDU will succeed in its bid to cut the country’s feed-in tariff by 30 percent within the next year. [...]
[...] and the opposition Social Democratic Party to cut feed-in tariffs at a rate lower than the initial 25 percent to 30 percent proposed earlier this month by CDU MP Joachim Pfeiffer. Herman Scheer, president of Eurosolar and an SDU MP, acknowledged an agreement was made, though he [...]