Renewable subsidies will amount to 17 billion euros next year

28.10.2024

The EEG financing requirement for next year is around 17 billion euros. This year, the federal government will have to contribute around 18.4 billion euros.

Since last year, funding for renewable energies has no longer been provided via the EEG surcharge, but from federal budget funds. A funding requirement of 17 billion euros is assumed for next year. The four transmission system operators (TSOs) 50 Hertz, Amprion, Tennet and Transnet BW have published this as a mandatory report on the website Netztransparenz.de.

The transmission system operators have also announced that the EEG account balance will probably be around 0.5 billion euros at the end of the year. This would put the financing requirement at a good 16.5 billion in 2025.

According to forecasts, the financing requirement for renewables will be around 19 billion euros this year. Although the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWK) had already been informed by the transmission system operators in mid-January of this year that they were assuming a financing requirement of 18.4 billion euros instead of 10.6 billion euros for 2024, it was only in May that it applied to the Ministry of Finance (BMF) for the planned expenditure of 8.8 billion euros in the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF) (we reported).

9.8 billion euros in the first half of the year

The increased demand on the EEG account is due, among other things, to falling wholesale electricity revenues from the marketing of subsidized green electricity. In the first half of the year, these subsidies amounted to 9.8 billion euros - almost as much as the budget for the year as a whole. In the first seven months of this year, the average electricity spot price was 7 cents/kWh - in the fall of 2023, the TSOs had predicted 12 cents.

According to the four TSOs, the financing requirements for this will now be determined annually in advance in accordance with the Energy Financing Act (EnFG). The financing is intended to cover the difference between the income and expenditure of the transmission system operators.

Author: Heidi Roider
Energie & Management GmbH