BEE sees lower renewables levy in Germany for 2015

Sep 11, 2014 - Germany's green levy, the surcharge paid by power consumers to support renewable energy generation, will fall to about EUR 0.06 (USD 0.08) per kWh in 2015 from EUR 0.0624/kWh in 2014.

The calculation has been made by the country’s renewable energy association BEE, which noted in a statement on Wednesday that this would be the first decrease in the levy since 2000. It also stressed that the reduction has nothing to do with the reform in Germany's Renewable Energy Act (EEG). BEE explained that the levy for 2014 has been set a bit too high so it resulted in a significant surplus in the green levy account.

Harald Uphoff, deputy head of BEE, believes that there will be no more significant increases in the renewable surcharge. He said that in 2016 and 2017 the rates are expected to remain stable since the power purchase price for new renewable energy systems is now low enough. This is good news for all consumers that have not been exempted from levy payments.

The green levy account is managed by the transmission system operators and tracks the balance between the expenditure on feed-in-tariff payments for green power and the revenues from electricity sale and levy payments by consumers. BEE said that in August 2014 the total surplus in the account has been about EUR 1.5 billion, as against a EUR-2-billion deficit a year back.

At the end of May, the Institute for Applied Ecology and specialised institute Agora Energiewende said the renewable energy levy could drop to EUR 0.0584 net per kWh next year.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.294)

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