Germany has updated its Renewable Energy Sources act to speed up the transition to a greener future by 2030.
Over the years, Germany has slowly been increasing its usage of renewable energy, and as a consequence, renewables are slowly helping to contribute to the reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions.
The updated laws aim for 80% of German electricity consumption to be sourced from renewables by 2030, and by 2035, 100% of electricity consumption should be from renewable energy sources. This is a step-up from their original targets which were projected on a slower timeline.
Germany’s new renewable energy laws will be focusing on four key areas, including solar power, off and on-shore wind and biomass.
• Solar power has a target annual expansion rate of 22GW, with subsidies given to those who feed electricity back into the electricity grid.
• Offshore wind energy should of expanded to 30GW by 2030, increasing another 40GW to a total of 70GW by the year 2045.
• Onshore wind is planned to see an annual expansion of 10GW, with each federal state assigning 2% of its surface area for turbines.
• Onshore wind capacity is set to double and solar energy is set to triple within the same time-frame.
Other countries are also studying ways in which they can increase their renewable energy use, with Denmark building an artificial island as a clean energy hub, in hopes to boost renewable energy use.