Germany mulls over changes to renewable law to address maize overuse - report

Aug 13, 2013 - The German government plans to make changes to the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) after the elections, in order to reduce the use of maize as feedstock for biogas plants, agrarheute.com said yesterday citing a report of the Bundestag agriculture committee.

One of the amendments the government is considering will affect the feed-in-tariffs for biogas plants. The rates adopted by the EEG in 2012 for small plants up to 75 kW, using at least 80% manure, encourage the wider use of maize, agrarheute added.

According to the committee's report, the future changes to the EEG will address issues such as the over-expansion of maize cultivation, which exhausts the farmland and pushes up prices. The government plans to solve the problems by promoting the wider use of residual and waste materials.

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