G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD
COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY1
May 2024

Synopsis
OVERALL COUNTRY SCORE: 243/400

Germany scores relatively well across most indicators with an exception forending fossil fuel dependencies. The latter is the result of historically high sharesof coal in the power mix, a decision to phase out nuclear power before fossil
power and, most importantly right now, a significant pipeline of new gas plants
to provide back-up capacities when coal is phased out. Germany’s overall goodscore is thanks to strong recent growth of variable renewables, and adopted
policies to ensure a continuous high growth rate of renewables, grid expansion,
improving digitalisation, and investments in renovation. A strong showing ininternational leadership, together with several EU policies in the area of energy
efficiency and standards, as well as the promotion of non-thermal flex under
new EU power market rules, further strengthen Germany’s score.
Headline message – Benchmarks 1–2 (Section 1: Infrastructure/Energy mix)
SCORE: 52/120

Germany’s 53% share of clean sources in the power mix in 2023 is at the highend, despite having phased out nuclear and coming out of a decade-long periodof sustained slow growth in renewables. Coal plants that were brought back online in response to Russia’s weaponising of energy supplies, have again beenclosed. A complete coal phase-out by 2030 is becoming more likely through a
combination of deal-making with utilities and carbon pricing. At the same time
Germany still has a significant pipeline of new gas plants to come on-line toprovide back-up capacities from 2030 onwards (with a requirement to switch toH2 between 2035 and 2040), when coal is expected to be phased out andrenewables would make up 80% of the power mix.

1 To see the whole Scorecard, including the scoring methodology, visit https://www.e3g.org/g7-power-systems-scorecard

1

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANYHeadline message – Benchmarks 3–5 (Section 2: Policies/Targets)
SCORE: 191/280

Germany has policies in place for nearly all aspects of power sector
decarbonisation. It has a target to triple build-out of solar and wind by 2030 toreach 80% RES-based energy by 2030. It is building out the infrastructure needed
to make this happen, such as grid investments, although it still relies heavily onhydrogen-ready gas plants to address intermittency. Newly agreed EU power
market rules, under which Germany has committed itself to setting national
flexibility objectives and flexibility support schemes focusing on non-thermal
options to increase grid flexibility investment, will help reduce this risk if
implemented well. Permitting time has come down but remains too high and thepipeline for wind and solar is too small.

Benchmark 1: Reducing fossil fuel reliance
SCORE: 18/60

Germany’s strong historical reliance on coal and gas for power generation and its
long-standing decision to phase out its existing nuclear fleet before coal meansthat significant progress in reducing its reliance on fossil fuels only started to bemade in the last few years, with most progress being made in phasing out coalfrom power generation. However, a pipeline of new gas generation capacities,
intended to replace coal plants as back-up capacities after 2030, remains a risk
factor to delivering a completely fossil free power system.
1.1 New unabated coal and gas power plants in planning or construction
SCORE: 4/15

Although Germany has no new coal infrastructure announced it does have asignificant pipeline of new gas plants to be used primarily as back-up andflexibility capacity. The 10 GW of new gas plants are required to be hydrogen
ready and are expected to switch to green hydrogen between 2035 and 2040.2
1.2 Share in electricity generation: fossil fuels
SCORE: 6/15

The fossil fuel share has been decreasing significantly over the last few years, toaround 40% last year. However, much of the coal generation is planned to be

2 BMWK, February 2024, Einigung zur Kraftwerksstrategie

2

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY

replaced with gas fired plants risking long-term fossil fuel lock-in for power
generation.
1.3 Share in electricity generation: non-renewable low-carbon tech
SCORE: 2/15

The share of non-renewable low-carbon tech in electricity generation was low at
1% because of a long-standing decision to phase out existing nuclear power.
1.4 Carbon intensity of power index
SCORE: 6/15

The carbon intensity of power index was 58.4 in 2022. Germany has
380.9 gCO2/kWh in 2023,3 placing it well above the global and G7 average.

Benchmark 2: Ramping up renewables
SCORE: 34/60

As a global pioneer in supporting renewable energy and with especially in thelast two years high growth rates Germany now has a relatively high share of
renewable generation and has set itself ambitious targets to stay on a strong
growth path. In 2023, Germany generated 53.4% of its electricity fromrenewable sources. Progress has also been made in reducing permitting times,
though more efforts are needed to bring those down further and the solar andwind pipeline is still too small.
2.1 Share of variable RES in electricity generation
SCORE: 15/15

Variable renewables made up 44% of generation in 2023: 32% wind energy and12.1% solar.
2.2 Share of other RES in electricity generation
SCORE: 5/15

Germany has a low share of other RES in generation as a result of a high share ofvariable RES. Last year, 8.4% of its electricity generation came from biomass and3.2% came from hydropower and other non-variable renewable sources.

3 Ember, May 2024, Electricity Data Explorer

3

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY

2.3 Variable RES pipeline capacity vs country’s announced target
SCORE: 6/15

Targets for the expanding RES capacities are in keeping with the government
target of a decarbonised power sector by 2035. Germany aims to roughly double
its onshore wind capacity4 to 115 GW by 2030, meaning annual capacity
additions will have to reach 10 GW as of 2025.
New Solar PV installations will total 22 GW per year as of 2026 to achieve a total
capacity of 215 GW by 2030 (400 GW by 2040), up from about 60 GW in 2021.
Germany’s pipeline for wind makes up 20GW half of which is already in the preconstruction phase, for solar it is 6 GW again evenly split across pre-construction
and announced. Overall, this is well below what is needed to achieve its own
renewable energy targets.
2.4 Average permitting time for VRE
SCORE: 8/10

Germany has made progress in reducing permitting times and making efforts to
reduce these further (helped by EU emergency regulations setting maximum
permitting times at 3 months for solar and 6 months for wind). For instance, inthe first months of 2023 3.2 GW of new onshore wind projects were approved, a
44% increase from the same period in 2022. However, permitting times are still
too high, averaging around 3–5 years.

Benchmark 3: Adapting the power systems to highRES share
SCORE: 97/120

Germany has taken important steps to adapt its power system to a high share ofvariable renewables. It has ambitious plans in place to expand its grid, strong
support schemes for renewables, and is factoring in increased demand levels
from electrification in transport and heating. However, its focus on new gas
plants to provide flexibility has been at the expense of non-thermal flexibility.
Implementation of new EU power market rules that promote non-thermal
flexibility options such as demand response is now an important opportunity toaddress this.

4 Clean Energy Wire, Glossary – Onshore wind (webpage, accessed May 2024)

4

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY

3.1 Policies to limit curtailment to a minimum that ensures optimal RES
capacity utilisation
SCORE: 12/15

At 4%,5 curtailment rates are still on the high end of IEA recommendations forcountries with high levels of RES,6 but Germany has and continues to takeeffective measures to reduce this rate. The government has set a target to
reduce curtailment of renewable energy to zero by 2030.
Germany’s current high rate is partly due to the inefficient connections between
renewables in the north and heavy industry usage in the south of the country.
Grid expansions have helped to reduce onshore wind curtailment by 2% since2015, and solar curtailment is just 1.94%. However, this is undermined byincreases in offshore wind curtailment to 8% in 2022 (up from 1% in 2015), and aquarter of offshore wind energy was curtailed in the first quarter of 2023.7
Offshore wind curtailment is expected to be much improved by the A-Nord gridconnection running from Lower Saxony to North Rhine-Westphalia. Other
policies to reduce curtailment include developing energy storage technologies
like hydrogen electrolysers at bottleneck areas on the grid,8 and increasing theflexibility of the power system and improving grid optimisation.9
Germany is also helping to develop a regional electricity market. This would
allow Germany to export excess renewable energy to neighbouring countries
when its own grid is congested. TenneT is developing its Nordlink.10
interconnector transporting mostly wind generated electricity between Germany
and Norway to provide more grid stability between the two countries.

5 CLEW, 13 December 2022, Germany curtails four percent of renewable power production due to gridbottlenecks
6 IEA, June 2023, Renewable Energy Market Update
7 Tagesspiegel Background, October 2023, Ein Viertel der Offshore-Erzeugung zuletzt abgeregelt
8 NEP Kompakt, 2023, Netzentwicklungsplan Strom 2037 mit Ausblick 2045, Version 2023, erster Entwurf
9 Bundesnetzagentur, December 2023, Monitoringbericht
10 Tennet, Nordlink (Webpage, accessed May 2024)

5

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY

3.2 Active steps by the national grid operator to plan for short spells of 100%
RE power
SCORE: 15/15

Germany adopted a System Stability Roadmap11 in December 2023. The System
Stability Roadmap for the first time outlines a structured path for achieving asecure and resilient system operation with 100% renewable energy sources.
Within the roadmap, all necessary processes and process enhancements that are
relevant for system stability are identified. For every process it describes a
process initiator, actors involved and an implementation period. BMWK (theMinistry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action) and BNetzA (the Federal
Network Agency) will support and monitor the implementation of the System
Stability Roadmap.
3.3 Effective policies to ramp up electricity storage
SCORE: 12/15

A comprehensive policy framework still missing but certain steps have alreadybeen taken, such as a commitment to install 10 GW of battery storage and apower storage strategy12 was adopted by the end of 2023.
In 2022, Germany agreed on a legal definition of energy storage as part oftranslating an EU directive13 (a reform of electricity market rules adopted in2019) to German law. This can pave the way for developing a regulatory
framework which is currently missing (assessment by the German Energy Storage
System Association BVES14). The law aims to remove bureaucratic obstacles andsimplify and accelerate the rapid expansion of energy storage.
According to BSW, the German Solar Association, Germany will need to increasestorage capacity from 6.7 GW (early 2023 figures) to 55 GW by 2030.15 In its
coalition agreement, the government committed to installing 10 GW of battery
storage. The “Resilience and Sustainability of the Battery Cell Production
Ecosystem” funding guideline makes around €1 billion in investment subsidies

11 BMWK, December 2023, System Stability Roadmap
12 BMWK, Stromspeicher-Strategie des BMWK vorgelegt (Webpage, accessed May 2024)
13 Official Journal of the European Union, 5 June 2019, Directivve (EU) 2019/944 of the European

Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on Common Rules for the Internal Market for Electricity andAmending Directive 2012/27/EU (recast)
14 Cameron Murray, 29 June 2022, Germany finally gives energy storage its own legal definition, Energy

Storage News
15 CLEW, 2 March 2023, Solar power battery installations increase exponentially in Germany

6

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY

available for the entire battery value chain:16 from raw materials to battery cells
and subsequent recycling.
The Renewable Energy Sources Act 2023 (EEG 2023) promotes the idea of using
green hydrogen for renewable energy storage. The National Hydrogen Strategy(NWS),17 published in July 2023, aims to increase electrolysis capabilities to
10 GW (up from previous target of 5.5 GW in the 2020 NWS). However, the new
NWS does not mention renewable energy storage in its key targets for hydrogen
applications.
3.4 Effective policies to increase end use flexibility
SCORE: 10/15

End use flexibility has not been a major factor in previous discussions around
Germany’s Power Plant Strategy. However, forthcoming implementation of new
EU power market rules will, if implemented ambitiously, be an important step
forward.18
The Power Plant Strategy19 incentivises the construction of new H2-ready power
plants as part of efforts to decarbonise the German power plant fleet. This will
be provided by a combination of 10 GW of hydrogen-ready gas fired power
plants and a technology-neutral capacity mechanism by 2028. The gas plants willthen switch to hydrogen between 2035 and 2040. The hydrogen could comefrom green, blue or other low carbon sources. An additional 500 MW of purehydrogen power plants will be funded as part of an energy research framework.
The total costs amount to approx. €15–20 billion over the next 15 years, withfunding coming from the Climate and Transformation Fund.
Under recently agreed EU power market rules, Germany has committed itself tosetting national flexibility objectives, to be defined by 2026, and flexibility
support schemes focusing on non-thermal options to increase grid flexibility
investment, enabling grid integration of renewables and less dependence on gas
for power systems balancing.

16 BMWK, 25 September 2023, Pressemitteilung: Neue Fördermaßnahmen zur Stärkung der Batterie-

Wertschöpfungskette
17 BMWK, Die Nationale Wasserstoffstrategie (Webpage, accessed May 2024)
18 Pieter de Pous, Artur Patuleia, Vilislava Ivanova, 15 January 2024, EU Power market reform: a launchpad

for deep decarbonisation of EU power
19 BMWK, February 2024, Einigung zur Kraftwerksstrategie

7

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY

3.5 Effective policies to accelerate grid development
SCORE: 12/15

Grid development has been high on the German government’s agenda and plans
are in place to address bottlenecks and help ensure delivery. However,insufficient progress poses a challenge for net zero in 2035. An integrated
strategy for electricity and hydrogen grid development is needed.20
The Scenario Framework21 for grid development is drafted each year by German
TSOs and then confirmed by BNetzA. This then forms the basis of the Network
Development Plan (NDP). The current NDP22 is running from 2023 to 2037/45
and was submitted by German transmission system operators (TSOs) in June
2023.
The Grid Expansion Acceleration Act for the Transmission Grid (NABEG)23 (first
adopted in 2011 and updated in 2023) governs the build out of the German gridin line with needs of renewables technology. An NDP is being developed andregularly revised by the four German TSOs 50Hertz, Amprion, TenneT andTransnetBW.
The Energy Industry Act (EnWG)24 also contains provisions relating to theextension of the grid network and the role of the Bundesnetzagentur in relatedplanning processes. The Electrotechnical Properties Verification Ordinance(NELEV)25 was amended by the BMWK to accelerate the grid connection ofrenewable plants and to remove certification and planning hurdles.
Hydrogen infrastructure is being considered to help deliver grid flexibility, being
seen as key for storage and load-side flexibility. German TSOs have handed in a
draft of the core hydrogen network plan26 to the BMWK. This is contributing to
the government’s own NDP. 50Hertz says of the plan “…bottlenecks in the
20 Agora Energiewende, 23 June 2022, Klimaneutrales Stromsystem 2035: Wie der deutsche Stromsektor

bis zum Jahr 2035 klimaneutral werden kann21 Bundesnetzagentur, Szenariorahmen (Webpage, accessed May 2024)
22 Netzentwicklungsplan Strom (Webpage, accessed May 2024)
23 Bundesnetzagentur, Netzausbaubeschleunigungsgesetz Übertragungsnetz (NABEG) (Webpage, accessed

May 2024)
24 Bundesnetzagentur, Ausbau der Stromübertragungsnetze (Webpage, accessed May 2024)
25 BMWK, 13 September 2023, Pressemitteilung: Beschleunigung von Netzanschlüssen für Erneuerbare-

Energien-Anlagen im Kabinett beschlossen
26 BMWK, 12 July 2023, Pressemitteilung: Fernleitungsnetzbetreiber veröffentlichen Planungsstand fürdeutschlandweites Wasserstoff-Kernnetz – Erster wichtiger Schritt für die künftige WasserstoffInfrastruktur

8

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY

transmission grid can be minimized and the curtailment of renewable energies
can be reduced during periods of high feed-in”.27
3.6 Effective policies to enable the required digitalisation of power systems
SCORE: 9/15

Policies are in place and are currently being updated as hurdles persists such as
slow technology rollout and integration of end consumers.
An important step forward was made in May 2023 with the adoption of a law to“restart the digitalisation of energy systems”28 amending already existing energy
related legislation. An assessment by researchers at Fraunhofer Institute29
however also found that more clarity was needed on goals being pursued, digitalcompetences needed to be improved and more investments in the digitalisationof energy systems was needed.
3.7 Effective mechanisms or frameworks to prevent preferential treatment forfossil fuel-based generation over RES on the market
SCORE: 14/15

Renewables continue to enjoy the support of policies and regulations thoughmore could be done to promote renewables over fossil fuels when designing gridfee structures.
The EEG law has been the bedrock of preferential treatment of renewableenergy. It was introduced in 2000, and generally updated in 2023 as EEG 2023
(with the most recent changes in May 2024). An originally included surcharge
charged directly to consumers was scrapped in 2022 as part of the measures toease the cost-of-living crisis caused by rising energy costs. However, the law still
has many elements that will support RES build out over fossils.
The EEG stipulates that the construction and operation of renewable energy
systems is in the “overriding public interest” and “serves public safety”. This
strengthens RES legally and politically but also increases the risk of green-ongreen conflict as it implies that RES build out will take priority over concerns
about, for example, nature conservation.

27 Netzentwicklungsplan, 23 March 2023, Pressemitteilung: Übertragungsnetzbetreiber veröffentlichen

ersten Entwurf des Netzentwicklungsplans 2037/20
28 Bundesgesetzblatt, 26 May 2023, Gesetz zum Neustart der Digitalisierung der Energiewende
29 Fraunhofer BINES, 20 February 2024, Fortschrittsbericht Digitalisierung des Energiesystems

9

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY

Under the EEG, a feed-in tariff for RES was introduced in 2000, when RES madeup 6% of electricity generation. The tariff fixed the price of RES so that investors
could ensure a secure return on investments. It helped drive down the cost of
RES and made them more competitive with fossil fuels. EEG23 has increased the
remuneration of the feed-in tariff for both private household solar and larger
solar installations. Analysts are confident that this will keep solar installations on
a bearish growth path. In 2023 14 GW of new solar was added to the grid, morethan was expected or targeted by the government.
Grid fees: There is ongoing debate over whether to split Germany up into
different energy price zones that would favour regions with high shares of RES
versus those with lower shares. Germany produces a lot of RES in the north andconsumes a lot of energy in the south and west. Currently those RES-producing
areas are also taking on the costs of adding the wind energy into the grid. Thereare calls to even out these costs to incentivise RES build out in regions that havehistorically been weak on RES.
3.8 Electrification rate target and roadmap to support delivery
RANKING: 13/15

Germany’s renewable energy law includes ambitious assumptions about
electrification rates, especially in heating and transport, and has policies in place
to support those.

Benchmark 4: Governance / International leadership
SCORE: 50/80

Germany’s involvement including financial commitment to several key
diplomatic initiatives supporting the global energy transition makes it a strong
leader in the global energy transition. Recent progress in advancing its domestic
coal phase-out commitment and boosting its ambition to RES are ensuring it has
some credibility to do so, but this is undermined at the same time by its
continuous effort to overcompensate for the loss of Russian gas imports.
4.1 2035 carbon neutral power system commitment adopted in national
legislation?
SCORE: 9/10

Germany was a driving force behind the G7 commitment to “fully or
predominantly decarbonized electricity sectors by 2035” and has committed to10

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANYbe net zero by 2045. A commitment to achieve a fossil free power sector by 2035
did not make it into the latest revision of Germany’s EEG, but the renewableenergy targets Germany has set itself for 2030 will effectively deliver a clean
power sector by 2035. And at the end of 2023, Germany was among seven EU
countries who committed to work together to establish a decarbonised power
sector by 2035 following an initiative by the Dutch government in thePentalateral Energy Forum.
4.2 Global leadership on supporting power systems decarbonisation indeveloping countries
SCORE: 7/10

Germany has been an active player in key energy related initiatives, having beenfor example the largest contributor of concessional and grant finance among theinternational donor group of countries supporting Just Energy Transition
Partnerships (JETPs). Its leadership is however undermined by its efforts toovercompensate for the loss of Russian gas imports and plan the construction of
new gas plants. Germany’s contributions include:> A strong international leadership role and significant engagement to support
energy transition in developing countries.
> Significant contributor to international climate finance: €5.34 billion in
2021.30> An active partner in the JETPs with South Africa,31 Indonesia,32 andVietnam,33 and one of the few IPG governments who was able to support
them with significant amounts of grant and concessional finance.
> Bilateral energy partnerships with Algeria, Brazil, Chile, China, India,
Morocco, Mexico, Tunisia through the Ministry for Economy and Climate
Action.34> Bilateral climate and development partnerships (P+) with Pakistan, Serbia,
Rwanda, India and Peru through the Ministry for Economic Cooperation.35
30 BMZ, Climate finance: Germany remains a reliable partner (Webpage, accessed May 2024)
31 European Commission, 2 November 2021, France, Germany, UK, US and EU launch ground-breaking

International Just Energy Transition Partnership with South Africa
32 European Commission, 15 November 2022, The EU and International Partners launch ground-breaking

Just Energy Transition Partnership with Indonesia
33 BMZ, 14 December 2022, Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with Viet Nam
34 BMWK, Climate, energy and hydrogen partnerships and energy dialogues (Webpage, accessed May

2024)
35 BMZ, Climate and development partnerships (Webpage, accessed May 2024)

11

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY

> Signatory to the Glasgow Coal to Clean Power Transition Initiative.
> Donor government to the Energy Transition Council (ETC).
4.3 International commitments on power systems decarbonisation throughalliances or networks such as the PPCA, Glasgow Coal to Clean Power Initiative
etc.
SCORE: 8/10

Germany was a relatively early member of the PPCA and is an active supporter of
its work but its membership was initially contingent on being able to commit to acoal phase-out by 2038 at first. Significant effort is being made since to move thisdate forward to 2030. Germany is also a member of the Glasgow Coal to Clean
Power Transition Initiative.
4.4 Net zero power system roadmap to drive delivery of 2035 commitment
SCORE: 5/10

There is no explicit net zero power sector delivery roadmap in place. However, apolitical roadmap to net zero was reaffirmed by Chancellor Scholz at World
Economic Forum meetings in Davos in 2023.
4.5 Critical role of renewables, interconnection, and demand side measuresreflected in country’s energy security framework?
SCORE: 6/10

Although there are tensions between short-term emergency diversification offossil fuel sources to reduce the economic impacts of high gas prices, andmedium-term measures to accelerate the energy transition, energy security has
become a key consideration in recent policy making in support of renewables,interconnections and demand side measures.
4.6 Unabated coal phase-out date and roadmap to support delivery
SCORE: 5/10

Formally, Germany’s federal coal phase-out of 2038 is still in place. However,coal exit is not likely to be a barrier to net zero power by 2035.
The government has already brough phase-out of lignite fired coal plants in thewestern German coal region North Rhine-Westphalia forward to 2030 in a deal
with state government and energy company RWE. Similar efforts are now under
way in coal region Lusatia in Germany’s East.

12

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY

The current government said in their coalition agreement that they wanted tobring the coal phase-out date forward to 2030, if possible. The ongoingnegotiations combined with the economic impact of a revised Emissions Trading
System (ETS) has made this increasingly likely.
4.7 Unabated gas phase-out date and roadmap to support delivery
SCORE: 0/10

Germany not only has no date or trajectory in place for phasing out gas in power
generation, but is in fact planning to build at least 10 GW of new plants to
replace coal as providing back-up capacity.
4.8 2030 target for share of total RES in electricity generation
SCORE: 10/10

Germany has a target of 80% RES in the power sector by 2030. This is a strong
commitment, but more robust policies are needed to speed up the build out of
RES in the coming years.

Benchmark 5: Reducing energy waste
SCORE: 44/80

Thanks to a combination of regulatory instruments, especially at EU level, anddomestic funding instruments, Germany is taking steps towards eliminatingenergy waste. However, more needs to be done.
5.1 Efficient policies to retrofit / renovate buildings
SCORE: 5/20

Germany has several policies and financing programmes in place that support
deep renovation but has so far not been able to increase renovation rates to the
speed needed.
> German Buildings Energy Act (Gebäudeenergiegesetz, GEG): issues energy
performance certificates and governs the requirements of the use ofrenewable energy in buildings36.
> Bundesförderung für effiziente Gebäude (BEG): financial support for
implementation of the GEG): supports energy efficiency and renewableenergies in the building sector in Germany. Created in 2021. Supports up to
36 BMWSB, Gebäudeenergiegesetz (GEG) (Webpage, accessed May 2024)

13

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY

50% of the expert planning, up to 20% construction support of single
efficiency measures, up to 45% for systemic renovation, (up to 70% for new
renewable heating systems (including heat pumps and biomass heating
systems) and heating optimisation.37> Germany is also bound to improve building efficiency by the EU Energy
Performance Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the Energy Efficiency Directive(EED).38 These directives aim to reduce emissions in the building sector
across Europe by 60% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.
> Germany currently does not have a binding retrofitting target. DIW haveargued that Germany needs a retrofitting target of no less than 4% a year tokeep up with emissions reduction targets across the EU and in Germany.39
The current rate of retrofitting per year is around 1%. This has stagnatedsince 2010. DIW argues that Germany does not have enough support
programs and investment at the moment to support a higher retrofittingrate.
5.2 National energy/power savings target
SCORE: 15/20

Following implementation of the EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive in 2023,
Germany’s Energy Efficiency Act (April 2023) implements the key requirementsof the directive in Germany to reduce primary and final energy consumption It
lays out binding energy efficiency targets for 2030, notably to reduce final energy
consumption by more than 550 TWh (26.5%) compared to 2008.40 Other key
targets include:> Primary energy reduction of 39% compared to 2008 by 2030 (which slightly
exceeds the EED target).
> Annual energy savings of 45 TWh by Federal government and 5 TWh at state
government level by 2030.
> Companies with annual energy consumption over 15 GWh required to
implement energy management systems and document energy efficiency

37 BAFA, Bundesförderung für effiziente Gebäude: Förderprogramm im Überblick
38 European Commission, Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (Webpage, accessed May 2024)
39 DIW Berlin, 13 March 2023, Accelerate thermal modernization of buildings with minimum standards forbuildings and binding retrofitting targets
40 Bundesregierung, 19 April 2023, Energy Efficiency Act: The public sector set to become a role model

14

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY

measures. Required to avoid waste heat during production or to makeeffective use of the waste heat.
> Standards for energy efficiency in new data centres. Mandating use of waste
heat and economical use of cooling system power.
5.3 Sufficient spending on energy efficiency programmes
SCORE: 8/20

Germany has two financial instruments in place to support renovations but atcurrent levels these are insufficient to achieve needed renovation rates.
> Bundesförderung für effiziente Gebäude (BEG): 2022 budget was€4.457 billion (up from €2.775 billion in 2021): €1 billion on new buildingsand €3.457 billion on retrofits. 2023 budget (agreed in March 2023) was€5.2 billion.41> Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF): from 2024 to 2027 a total of€211.8 billion to be invested in total. €18.9 billion has been earmarked for
retrofitting and energy efficiency for new buildings.42
5.4 High-quality appliance and equipment standards and labelling
SCORE: 16/20

Through the transposition of EU labelling and standards instruments, Germany
has policies in place to promote energy efficient appliances.
Appliance and equipment standards> EU Ecodesign Directive (2009) covers 31 product groups and according to the
EU saved consumers €120 billion in energy costs and lessened energy
consumption by 10%. These cover mainly energy related products.43> A proposal for a new Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR)
was originally published in March 2022. It builds on the Ecodesign Directive
to incorporate more metrics on circular economy of products.44

41 BAFA, Bundesförderung für effiziente Gebäude: Förderprogramm im Überblick
42 Bundesregierung, 9 August 2023, Milliardeninvestitionen in Energiewende, Klimaschutz undTransformation
43 Official Journal of the European Union, 21 October 2009, Directive 2009/125/EC of the European

Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 establishing a framework for the setting of ecodesign
requirements for energy-related products (recast)
44 European Commission, Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (Webpage, accessed May 2024)

15

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY

> Refrigerators and freezers, washing machines and dishwashers, tumble
dryers, televisions, light bulbs, air conditioners and boilers require energy
efficiency class labels in Germany.
Labelling> Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) were brought in by the EPBD at theEuropean level. They measures the energy efficiency of buildings in the EU.45> EU Energy Efficiency class label indicates the energy efficiency of consumer
products and appliances and has a QR for more information on the product.
All labelled products are on the EPREL EU database. The boundaries between
classes A–G are determined by the EU Framework Regulation 2017/1369.46> Blue Angel (Blauer Engel) Eco Label has been around for 45 years and is used
to distinguish products that are environmentally friendly. It is a voluntarylabel that is used as a best in class for German products.47> Efficiency House Seal of Approval from German Energy Agency DENA is avoluntary label designed to help buyers recognise a building as energy
efficient when going to look at it for the first time. Around since 2009.48

45 Heinrich Böll Stiftung, 3 April 2022, What are Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and what is theirstatus in Germany?
46 European Commission, Ecodesign and Energy Label (Webpage, accessed May 2024)
47 Blauer Engel: Ecolabel history (Webpage, accessed May 2024)
48 Ökologisch Bauen, DENA führt Effizienzhaus Gütesiegel ein (Webpage, accessed May 2024)

16

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANYAbout E3G
E3G is an independent climate change think tank with a global outlook. We workon the frontier of the climate landscape, tackling the barriers and advancing thesolutions to a safe climate. Our goal is to translate climate politics, economics
and policies into action.
E3G builds broad-based coalitions to deliver a safe climate, working closely withlike-minded partners in government, politics, civil society, science, the media,
public interest foundations and elsewhere to leverage change.
More information is available at www.e3g.org
Copyright
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 4.0 License. © E3G 2024

17

G7 POWER SYSTEMS SCORECARD – COUNTRY PROFILE: GERMANY