The SPD (Social Democratic Party) represents the interests of the German working class, especially unions. It is the largest left party in Germany but has lost voters to “die Linke” (the Left) and the Green Party.
The German National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP) was announced in 2014, and its goal is to increase energy efficiency.
Germany began auctioning off renewable energy projects in 2017, a fundamental shift from its previous policy of feed-in tariffs. Citizen cooperatives can also bid on projects, but are at a competitive disadvantage to corporations, who are now the chief owners bigger projects such as of offshore wind farms.
The timeline of the main historic events in Germany’s Energiewende
When heat is generated from renewable energy – such as biomass and solar thermal – one speaks of “renewable heat,” but the term can also encompass the recovery of waste heat for heating applications.
Germany has helped to make solar power inexpensive for the world. The challenge now is to integrate large amounts of solar power in the country’s power supply.
Biomass usually means ethanol, biodiesel, biogas and wood pellets made from plants and waste products. It is the most versatile type of renewable energy as it can provide heat, energy and fuel.
Germany has resolved to replace fossil and nuclear energy with renewables – but the process is more complicated than that. Most of all, it involves lower energy consumption through efficiency and conservation and requires that energy consumption be tailored to availability. And in addition to all of this, people who used to be mere consumers will increasingly also become energy producers (“prosumers”).
Germany is the second largest donor of financing for climate protection worldwide. German climate funds promote action to mitigate climate change by enabling efficiency measurements, funding renewables, electric mobility, and more.
Germany began building highly efficient passive houses in 1990. But although many buildings can now be renovated to fulfill very ambitious standards, a lot of progress still needs to be made towards increasing the energy efficiency of renovated buildings. To improve things, Germany has developed an Efficient Building Strategy.