Gas and electricity price brake
Energie has become drastically more expensive since Russia invaded Ukraine. With the help of gas and electricity price brakes, consumers, small and medium-sized companies as well as care and educational institutions should be relieved of the high energy prices. The price brakes will come into force in March, but apply retrospectively from January 1st. Gas customers then pay a gross price of 12 cents per kilowatt hour for 80 percent of their previous consumption; for electricity it is a maximum of 40 cents per kilowatt hour. The price brakes are limited to April 30, 2024.
Rapid expansion of renewables
Numerous changes to the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) will come into effect on January 1st. The EEG is the central legislative package to make Germany climate-neutral. It has been the case since the summer that the generation of renewables is in the overriding public interest and serves public safety. Among other things, the requirement that the share of renewable energies should increase to at least 80 percent by 2030 will now come into force – that would almost double the share of total electricity consumption. To this end, the expansion paths, electricity volume paths and tender volumes for onshore wind energy and solar energy will be increased. Wind and solar projects should also be able to be implemented more unbureaucratically by citizen energy companies. In order to increase local acceptance, there are also plans to increase the financial participation of municipalities in wind energy.
More wind turbines
The states are also held accountable. On February 1st, the “Wind on Land Act” comes into force. According to this, the federal states must designate 2 percent of the federal area for wind energy by the end of 2032. Currently it is only 0.8 percent in Germany, of which only 0.5 percent is actually available. From January 1st there will also be a new legal framework for offshore wind energy. The expansion targets for offshore wind energy have been increased to 30 gigawatts by 2030 and 40 gigawatts by 2035. The previous targets were 20 gigawatts by 2030 and 40 gigawatts by 2040.
Energy efficiency of new buildings
The amended federal funding for efficient buildings will come into effect on January 1st. For new buildings, the “Efficiency House 55” will become the statutory funding standard – which was massively funded until the end of January 2022. The requirements for the primary energy requirement are being tightened: whereas the permissible annual primary energy requirement for new buildings was previously 75 percent of the primary energy requirement of the reference building, in future the mark will be 55 percent.
Promotion of photovoltaics
For photovoltaic systems, there is no obligation to limit the feed-in power to 70 percent of the nominal power, so that more electricity can be fed into the grid. Consumers no longer have to grant network operators remote control. In addition, there is no income tax to be paid on the income from smaller photovoltaic systems, and there is no VAT on purchase. The remuneration rates for the electricity fed into the grid were also increased for 2023.
Landlords share the costs
So far, the climate tax for oil and gas heating has only had to be paid by the tenants. From the beginning of the new year, the landlords will contribute to the costs depending on the building’s efficiency. The more energy a building consumes per area, the more the landlord has to pay. According to the underlying stage model, its cost share can be between zero percent for top-refurbished buildings and 95 percent for non-refurbished buildings.
