Germany parliament accepts windfall tax

• Germany's Bundestag has actually accepted the introduction of a windfall levy on excessive earnings from renewable resource generation as part of a bundle of actions indicated to cap gas and also electrical power prices through April 2024.

The tax will apply to wind, solar, hydro, waste-to-energy, nuclear as well as brown coal-fired nuclear power plant of over 1 MW with a retroactive result as of December 1, 2022. The levy will certainly be paid up until June 30, 2023 but its term can be reached April 30, 2024.

The German government says that the tax is made in a way that guarantees suitable revenues for the procedure of renewable energy plants and claims that it will certainly not deter financiers from new renewable energy projects and power purchase agreements (PPAs).

The earnings from the windfall levy will be made use of to finance the electricity, gas and warmth price brakes which are at the core of a EUR-200-billion (USD 212.38 bn) plan that Germany has actually released as a response to skyrocketing wholesale prices of gas following the war in Ukraine.

The intro of the levy encountered tough criticism from market players as well as organizations which consider it a threat to the investment climate for renewable resource in the long-term and believe that it places the country's climate targets at risk.

Clean power company Green Planet Energy said last week that it prepares to take legal action against the law. The business's criticism is focused on the reality that recommendation prices from the spot market, which are usually well above the PPA prices, will certainly contribute in the estimation of the tax for wind as well as solar power plants that market their electrical power via PPAs.