A milestone in the global energy transformation is celebrating its birthday: The German EEG turns 25
1 April marks the 25th anniversary of the entry into force of the ‘Act on the Priority of Renewable Energies’. It marks a remarkable success story, and not just for Germany.
While there was still a strong dependence on nuclear power and fossil fuels in 2000 and renewables accounted for just under 5% of the electricity sector in Germany at the time, the EEG, which was passed by the Bundestag on 25 February 2000, has increased their share to over 60% of the electricity consumed in Germany in the last 25 years.
This success, which many had not expected, was possible despite the fact that the law was initially fought hard by the electricity industry in German courts and later also in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The large electricity companies, which until recently still had a monopoly position, claimed that the purchase obligation established by the EEG, e.g. for wind power, and the minimum remuneration to be paid for it did not comply with EU competition law. For several years, they therefore only paid the electricity tariffs subject to legal reservations, which made it more difficult to finance new projects, especially for private, medium-sized and community energy competitors. However, after the European Court of Justice confirmed the legal conformity of the German renewable energy regulation in March 2001, the electricity suppliers also entered the renewable energy sector with vigour. This success inspired numerous other European and non-European countries, including China and Brazil, to pass similar laws.
These pioneering countries encouraged more than 60 other countries around the world to adopt similar laws, which brought enormous momentum to the global energy transformation. And in Germany itself, a veritable boom in renewables followed. In 2002, net new installed wind power capacity totalled 3,247 megawatts (MW) – more than 2,545 MW net in the previous year. In 2024, 3,993 MW of gross new wind power capacity was installed, 742 MW of which was offshore, but 1,448 MW of old turbines were dismantled and released for repowering.
Even more significant than wind power is the success story of the solar industry in Germany and around the world, which was achieved thanks to the EEG. Despite the very high initial generation costs of around one euro per kilowatt hour (kWh), solar power has now become the cheapest source of electricity compared to new power plants, even in Central European regions with comparatively moderate sunshine by global standards – at €0.04 to €0.08/kWh in Germany, followed by wind power at €0.06 to €0.10/kWh depending on the location. A big thank you is due here to the far-sighted parliamentarians who made the decision in the Bundestag at the time and who also achieved international renown, above all Dr Hermann Scheer and Hans-Josef Fell. Despite resolute opposition from the conventional electricity industry, they helped the EEG Act to become a major success with international implications.
If the enormous earlier growth trend in wind power up to 2017 and the rate of expansion of solar power in the years up to 2012 had been continued with such ambition and not slowed down by subsequent federal governments, Germany could have achieved full electricity supply from 100% domestic renewable energies before 2020, as the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) recently calculated. This would have had enormous economic and climate policy benefits – including possible peace policy implications. Eurosolar President Dr Hermann Scheer has also repeatedly pointed out that the number and intensity of global conflicts would decrease if all countries were increasingly to obtain 100% of their energy from largely domestic renewable sources.
Other renewable energies are also available to make this possible. Hydropower, biomass and geothermal energy also have the advantage of being easier to store. The expansion of biomass – especially biogas – has also experienced strong expansion phases in Germany due to the EEG, which, as with wind and solar, were also interrupted by periods of political procrastination. While energy from wind and sun ideally complement each other in summer and winter, gaseous and solid biomass can supplement the two new leading energies, especially in times of so-called dark doldrums, together with local and supra-regional storage hydropower in Germany, but above all in Scandinavia and the Alpine countries.
The EEG goes back to the Electricity Feed-in Act (StrEG) passed by a broad parliamentary majority under the conservative Federal Government in 1990, which set a statutory minimum price for wind power for the first time from 1 January 1991 and also increased remuneration for electricity from hydropower, albeit linked to the average selling price, which became obsolete in the course of liberalisation. The EEG then added statutory minimum tariffs for electricity from solar, biomass and geothermal energy from 1 April 2000. As a result, the number of electricity producers in Germany grew from a few hundred (1990) to over 100,000 and has now exceeded the million mark, especially solar roof owners and citizen energy participants in wind power projects. This development has created a clearly positive mood and thus also strengthened democratic political satisfaction in the regions concerned.
Today, the EEG success story of renewable energies could be continued with further support for community energy from the new federal government.
Source
Heinrich Bartelt, BürgerEnergie Druiberg eG und Vizepräsident WWEA 2025
