WEEK 44

October 23, 2023: German Domestic Politics: The "Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance" opposes emissions trading, the phase-out of combustion engines, and Germany's complete transition to renewables. Climate goals are not mentioned in the founding document. Instead, the planned party focuses on new technologies and aims to resume importing Russian gas. Wagenknecht intends to break away from the current climate policy despite the Ukraine conflict (fr.de).

October 24, 2023: German support mechnism: In its session on Thursday, the North Rhine-Westphalia State Parliament approved and passed the amended state building code after the third reading. The governing factions of CDU and Greens voted in favor of the amendment, while the opposition parties SPD, AfD, and FDP voted against it. Starting next year, new non-residential buildings must be equipped with a rooftop photovoltaic system. Residential buildings will follow in 2025, and the obligation will apply to fundamental roof renovations from 2026 onwards. With the amendment, the minimum distances for solar modules on roofs officially decrease. MMD18-4593.pdf (nrw.de)

October 25, 2023: Technology: Fraunhofer ISE has developed a medium-voltage string inverter for large power plants, which has already passed practical tests. This paves the way for a completely new system concept for large solar power plants. The researchers have introduced a new inverter that allows an increase in output voltage to the medium-voltage range (1,500 volts) at a power of 250 kilovolt-amperes (kVA). They achieved this success by using high-blocking silicon carbide semiconductors. Additionally, they installed a special cooling concept with heat pipes, increasing the cooling performance. This allowed them to use less aluminum. Another significant saving potential lies in the cables. Photovoltaic power plants typically have kilometers of copper cables installed, which are costly. The new inverter offers the advantage of substantial savings in this area: with a string inverter of 250 kVA output, a minimum cable cross-section of 120 square millimeters (mm2) is required at an output voltage of 800 VAC. With a voltage increase to 1,500 VAC, only 35 mm2 are needed. This reduces the copper requirement by about 700 kilograms for every kilometer of cable. Fraunhofer

October 26, 2023: De-Industrialization: The higher energy prices resulting from the Ukraine conflict have only slightly diminished the competitiveness of German companies, according to the Bundesbank. From early 2021 to July 2023, relative energy prices increased by 5.0 percent, as shown in a study published in the central bank's monthly report on Monday. As a result, Germany's price competitiveness decreased by 0.2 percent. However, this was offset by the simultaneous improvement due to the depreciation of the euro against the dollar by approximately 1.4 percent, "so that the negative cost effect was more than compensated for" from an overall economic perspective. A weaker euro makes "Made in Germany" products cheaper in other currency areas. Energy crisis has minimally affected Germany's competitiveness - Der Spiegel

October 27, 2023: IEA: The new World Energy Outlook 2023 by the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that the share of renewables in the global electricity mix will increase from today's 30 percent to nearly 50 percent by 2030. The number of electric vehicles will be ten times higher at the end of this decade than today, and heat pumps and other electric heating systems will surpass fossil boilers. According to the IEA report, photovoltaics will supply more electricity worldwide than all power plants and other generation facilities in the USA combined. More investment will flow into new offshore wind projects alone than in new gas and coal power plants. All forecasts are based on the current goals of governments worldwide. IEA