The prices for "special contract customers" as large consumers have decreased by 3 percent, domestic consumers have suffered about 20 percent higher electricity costs since 2008. (Development of the electricity price indices in Germany since 08/2008, Federal Statistical Office)
At last, HUSUM WindEnergy is set to open its doors in September. Renewable energies already make up 25 percent of the energy mix in Germany, so the industry could discuss a luxury problem such as: “How will the town on the coast cope with growth?”
But once again, the tradition that is successfully making history is not the focus of attention. It’s the same old story “before Husum“: The German Renewable Energy Law (EEG), the engine of this success, is under fire, and the debate on costs dominates the media. The new Environment Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) is preparing consumers for another electricity price increase of up to five percent .
However, in a study for the Greens parliamentary group, energy expert Gunnar Harms reaches other conclusions: “In the last five years we have seen that increased purchasing prices are always immediately passed on to consumers, but price reductions are not – at least not to private households”, says Harms. He states that prices for industrial customers have fallen in the last few years by three percent “while private customers have to pay some 20 percent more for electricity than in 2008”. (Financial Times, 24.8.12)
In a similar vein, a report by the German Environment Association (DUH) shows that in the electricity tax debate, the Federal government acts much more favourably towards industry than it has so far revealed publicly. At the beginning of August, the Federal Cabinet passed a resolution to continue the tax break scheme for major consumers that allows 23,000 companies to save considerable electricity and energy cost taxes.
What is more, these concessions are not even linked to requirements for real improvements in efficiency. For instance, for 2015 it is enough for a company to prove a target of 1.3 percent reduction in energy intensity. However, according to an EU forecast, this target value exactly matches the already anticipated reduction, in other words business as usual. The figure for recent years has been 1.4 percent anyway, so no extra effort is required.
In this context, the DUH points out another “interesting” provision in the draft bill. The government plans to include the energy industry in its calculation of the efficiency success of German industry. This is how the government massages the figures for improved efficiency, because nuclear and coal power stations are statistically much less efficient than wind or solar. If the proportion of renewables increases, the efficiency of German industry automatically increases on paper without industrial companies doing a thing. The government makes good use of this mathematical sleight of hand to convince the public that it is demanding ambitious energy savings from industry. The fact is that it continues to provide “hidden” subsidies to the amount of EUR 2.3 billion to industry, without requiring real energy savings in return.
That is why we will use Husum this year to present a trade fair special: our Reality Orientation Training (ROT), a fundamental approach to treating the seriously confused. Because it is firmly rooted in reality, ROT regularly confronts politicians suffering amnesia with the fact that their subjective reality is merely a fiction. The aim of ROT is to boost memory, improve communication, “preserve and nourish the resources of the subject and provide orientation and a link to reality at all times”. To achieve this, our staff will employ simple, easy-to-understand information.
Our trade fair staff have been instructed to avoid irony and double meanings. Instead, they will seek eye contact and address people by their names. Naturally they will themselves wear name badges. This form of reality orientation training is also called “24-hour ROT” because it is applied permanently, 24-hours a day (Spector 2000, Taulbee 1966).
But there’s also another way of solving the problems currently back in the spotlight. It is to simply switch to a green electricity supplier and support a downward electricity price development. Now that’s simple and easy to understand!
More information (in German):
http://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/strompreis120.html
Study of the German Wind Energy Association and Greenpeace Energy eG: "Was Strom wirklich kostet". Download here: http://www.wind-energie.de