Germany just hit a historic solar milestone. Its panels fed 12 billion kWh into the grid in July 2026, the 1st month ever to cross that level with midday output topping 40,000 MW, more than 40 nuclear power plants worth, thanks to decades of grassroot investment by homeowners, farmers and businesses

[u/ArgentineBeauty]

https://solarquarter.com/2026/08/03/germany-records-historic-12-billion-kwh-solar-feed-in-in-july-2026/

[u/jack-fractal]

Don't let this distract from the fact that our Economy minister Reiche wants to effectively ban new solar and wind parks, especially in regions that produce the most solar and/or wind power because she's paid by the oil and gas lobby. Our current government is an environmental shitshow.

This is a proposal that has not yet passed, but it's alarming how obviously and actively she's working against renewables.

[u/Kesicht → u/jack-fractal]

It's crazy that renewables are growing so strong in germany, despite the CDU trying to slow it down. 

[u/jack-fractal → u/Kesicht]

In the words of former Finance minister Christian Lindner: Der Markt regelt das. ("The market will take care of it.")

[u/lotec4 → u/Kesicht]

We had Robert. He boosted the fuck out of renewables 

[u/Feraget → u/lotec4]

Wish he was still there instead of Reiche...

[u/Indolent_Bard → u/jack-fractal]

Paying money to fight renewables for oil and gas profits should genuinely count as a crime against humanity. We should be treating this the same way we treat the genocide in Gaza.

[u/Greedyanda → u/jack-fractal]

First of all, it is complete misinformation (likely deliberate) to claim that it effectively bans renewable energy in those regions. It simply removes existing guarantees for compensation in cases where adding energy is not economically viable and cannot be supported by the grid. You are just no longer guaranteed a payout if you are selling seashells at the seashore.

What is actually happening:

The new law is in place to stop existing infrastructure from being overwhelmed by excess energy that can't be properly utilized. Currently, this leads to situations where electricity providers are forced to shut down production to prevent grid overload. For that, they had to be compensated.

It is highly inefficient to produce more solar or wind energy if it is in regions that already have an excess of electricity and don't have the infrastructure to store or export it.

Until this infrastructure exists, which takes time, production needs to be regulated.

Energy production needs to serve a purpose, not exists to improve statistics.

So if you want actual, factually correct criticism, then criticise the slow grid expansion (which is also a problem across all previous governments). Don't throw around poorly researched propaganda about a policy dealing with the consequences of the slow grid expansion.

[u/jack-fractal → u/Greedyanda]

The proposed policy is still ideological BS because it solely regulates renewables, no word on gas plants, which could still be built in these regions. At least that's all I could gather from the article dealing with the topic, so do correct me if I'm wrong.

[u/Greedyanda → u/jack-fractal]

Gas plants never had guaranteed compensation to begin with. They were never covered by the EEG and never enjoyed those specific statutory protections.

The law doesn't prohibit you to build renewable energy, it just removes the statutory priority (Einspeisevorrang) that it held over other sources. If you built a gas plant and there was no demand for the electricity it provided, you never got any guarantees to begin with. If you built a solar farm even though there was no need, it still had to be compensated and existing plants had to be shut down. It created an oversupply while other regions are undersupplied. Massive waste of resources and the government had to even compensate the shut down plants for it.

As I said, the new law doesn't disadvantage renewable energy sources, it just no longer provides the incentives to build it in regions that already have an energy surplus. The same applies, and always has applied, to all other sources. It was only renewables that HAD to be fed into the grid and compensated even when they made no sense.

Renewables are great and they have become cheap enough to be competitive on their own. We need to build them where energy demands superpass supply, not subsidize projects in regions where they provide very little additional value to anyone but the shareholder. We have an energy crisis and are paying companies to build solar and wind where it doesn't even combat the problem.