On Saturday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz appeared to criticize his economy minister by saying that Germany’s energy-hungry industry needs more renewable power output, not subsidies.
High power prices disadvantage Germany’s heavy industry compared to other countries like the US and China.
This week, Germany’s finance ministry, chaired by Greens’ Robert Habeck, proposed a 6 cents per kWh subsidy until 2030.
On Friday, Scholz’s coalition finance ministry rejected the subsidy proposal, claiming no funding.
“There are regions already today where power production is as cheap as we want it to be so that industrial operations can prevail against global competition without subsidies,” Scholz stated when asked how to cut power prices.
Scholz said he would do everything possible to improve electricity transmission networks and renewable power generation across Germany.
Scholz addressed the media at a Kenyan geothermal power project.
“We know today already that we will have lower power prices than today, once we reached our goal that renewable energies dominate electricity production in Germany,” he continued.
Habeck’s economics ministry claimed the subsidies would last until 2030 and cost 25 billion euros ($28 billion) to 30 billion euros at current market pricing.
Scholz was skeptical, saying long-term subsidies were bad for the economy.
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