Germans do not believe in successful energy transition - survey

Dec 23, 2013 - The majority of Germans do not believe that the new coalition government will succeed in carrying out an affordable transition to renewable energy, the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV) said on Wednesday.

A survey, conducted by opinion research institute TNS Emnid on behalf of VZBV, showed 59% of German consumers doubt that the coalition between Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) will succeed in continuing the energy turnaround in an affordable way for consumers.

Only 39% of the polled said they trusted the new government will keep its commitment to limit the increasing costs of the transition, the results showed.

According to VZBV, the government's decision to extend the guaranteed feed-in tariff of EUR 0.19 per kWh for offshore wind farms by two years will further raise the expenses for the transition and will cause some EUR 75 (USD 102) of additional costs for consumers annually.

In addition, the surcharge under the Renewable Energy Law (EEG), added to the consumer's electricity bills, is projected to rise to EUR 0.081 per kWh in the next four years, VZBV added.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.365)

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