German consumers will pay 5.9% less next year for renewable power subsidies despite output from green energy sources estimated to rise 6.3% to 217 TWh, the country's four grid operators said Monday.
The EEG-Umlage renewable energy surcharge for 2019 will be Eur64.05/MWh ($80.17/MWh), down from Eur67.92/MWh this year, with consumers having to finance over Eur25 billion a year.
Rising wholesale power prices and falling costs for new projects were the key reasons for the decline of the levy for 2019, the grid regulator who has to confirm the TSOs estimates said in a separate statement.
The levy is now back at 2014 levels despite renewables output being 50% higher, regulator BnetzA said.
The levy tripled between 2010 and 2014, prompting the government to reform the way renewables are subsidized with a move away from feed-in-tariffs to competitive auctions for most projects.
For 2019, transmission system operators estimate just under 6 GW of new renewable capacity will be down from an 8-GW forecast for 2018 last October with onshore wind growth, in particular set to come to a standstill because of the move to auctions.
The levy is based on estimates by Germany's four TSOs of the deficit between feed-in tariffs paid to renewable power producers and the achieved sales price on the spot power exchange with various other factors, ranging from interest rates to reserve margins also needing to be factored in.
The TSOs estimate that in 2019 the overall cost to be paid to operators of renewable energy installations will be Eur33.1 billion offset by Eur7.8 billion estimated revenue from the sale of the renewables of the spot exchange.
Under Germany's EEG renewable energy law, the gap between this has to be borne by all end-consumers through the EEG-Umlage, with only the most energy-intensive industrial users exempt from the surcharge.
The current surplus of Eur3.7 billion in the EEG account for the past 12 months also helped to keep next year's levy down.
