Angela Merkel’s minister balks at cost of dash to green energy

Germany may have to slow its switch to green energy, environment minister Peter Altmaier has said in an effort to ease fears that consumers will bear huge costs of the move from nuclear.

A year before an election, fears of rising energy bills in Europe’s biggest economy have become a major concern for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right government which has ambitious targets for renewables to replace atomic power.

Thanks in part to a law that guarantees renewables above-market rates, Germany has seen a rapid expansion in solar panels and wind turbines. With about 25 per cent of its power already derived from green sources, experts say it is well on track to hit its 2020 goal of 35 per cent.

“If we let things continue, we will be getting 40 or 45 per cent of our power from renewables by 2020 rather than 35 per cent,” Mr Altmaier said yesterday.

While the rapid expansion was a good thing, “the faster the expansion of green power is, the more it costs,” he added. Earlier he had said that the switch to green sources could end up with Germany having an energy surplus which it would have to cut.

The German unit of Swedish energy group Vattenfall said on Monday consumers may end up paying up to 30 per cent more by 2020 to fund the switch which will require investments of about €150 billion (£119bn).

Some members of Mrs Merkel’s government want a new law which would reduce the burden on consumers who have a fee added to their power bills to help fund the switch to ­renewables.