Talk of 'profit-skimming poisoning urgently needed renewables spending'
Wind industry demands quick decisions on EU renewable revenue cap proposal and uniform rules across Europe to guarantee stability for investors
EU member states should quickly decide about a proposal by the European Commission to cap renewable energy revenues at €180/MWh ($173/MWh), and ensure the measure is only temporary and not retroactive in nature, the wind sector warned at the opening of WindEnergy Hamburg.
The two measures are slated to raise more than €140bn for EU member states to cushion households and businesses from sky-high energy prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. EU energy ministers are slated to discuss the proposals at a second emergency meeting this Friday.
“The ongoing discussion of skimming off profits is poison for urgently needed investment in renewables,” Björn Spiegel, vice president of Germany’s wind energy federation (BWE), said.
“We need quick decisions, quick help for families, for industry sector, and uniform pricing in all EU member states. Time limited and not retrospectively effective.”
Spiegel added the commission’s ideas are “very debatable” as is the suggested level of the price cap. Other measures, such as special taxes, may be worse, he added.
Measures must apply for all
Sven Utermöhlen, the offshore wind chief executive at RWE Renewables and also chairman of WindEurope, said the industry supports that action needs to be taken to support families and industries that suffer.
“What is currently being proposed, an infra-marginal price cap of €180/MWh is an instrument that can work,” Utermöhlen said.
“However … it is very important that this is really … applied across Europe and across all the players in the industry.”
Individual EU member states shouldn’t be allowed to “deviate” from the general rule for all, the executive demanded.
“Investors need predictability, they need stability and they need clarity of rules. If the game becomes a patchwork of different rules and gets unpredictable, because it can change any point of time, that’s not good.”
The measure should also apply to the “real income” of electricity generators, regardless of the way their power is commercialised - whether it is via power purchase agreements (PPAs), or on power exchanges.
“It must apply to the actual true revenue that is being generated,” he stressed.
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