Germany has to massively expand wind and solar electricity to reach the government coalition’s goal of a 65 percent renewables share in power consumption by 2030, said energy industry lobby BDEW (German Association of Energy and Water Industries). From January to April 2019, the share was 44.6 percent, and for all of 2018, of 38 percent, according to Clean Energy Wire and Handelsblatt.

Current planning based on the 2017 Renewable Energy Act (EEG) reform is insufficient. The country has to almost double its current renewable electricity capacity to between 215 and 237 gigawatt (GW). The BDEW has calculated two exemplary expansion scenarios, both of which see mostly added capacity in solar power, but even the capacity of increasingly contested onshore wind power has to increase by more than a third. In light of growing resistance to onshore wind turbines, land use restrictions for solar power and offshore wind in particular have to be reduced, says the BDEW. Germany has to get rid of the 10 megawatt (MW) limit for open field solar photovoltaic (PV) parks, a 15 GW limit for offshore wind by 2030 and the 52 GW limit for PV installations not supported by the EEG, said BDEW head Stefan Kapferer.