German investment in renewables to double by 2020: study

Apr 20, 2010 - Xinhua

Germany's annual investment in renewable energy will be doubled to 28 billion euros (37 billion U.S. dollars ) by 2020, and the industry will become a main creator of jobs and an investment growth point.

That's according to the latest report from the German Association of Renewable Energy (BEE).

The report, conducted by consulting company Prognos AG at the request of the BEE, said Germany's renewable energy industry would attract up to 235 billion euros in the next 10 years, and the green industry by 2020 would witness a fast-paced expansion in the sectors of electricity, heat and transport.

"With the upcoming investment worth of billions of euros, the renewable energy sector will increase employment and add new values to Germany, without polluting the environment and wasting resources, said Bjoern Klusmann, CEO of the BEE.

A stable political environment, such as the protection from the German Renewable Energy Act, is a prerequisite for this positive development, the CEO said in a statement.

Germany's alternative energy sector was expected to create 500,000 new jobs in the next 10 years, most of which would be created by German companies and be needed outside the county, the study said.

The results of our study show that renewable energy can play an increasingly important role for Germany in the coming years, if the industry develops as expected, Jens Hobohm, an energy expert from Prognos said in a statement.

The BEE released another forecast earlier, saying that renewable energy power plant capacities in Germany would almost triple by 2020, and the average annual growth would be 9 percent.

The quantity of power produced from renewable energies in 2020 is expected to equal 47 percent of the gross electricity production and to guarantee a secure and affordable power supply", avoiding more than 200 million tonnes of carbon emissions, the forecast said.

Germany is considered one of the world leaders in developing renewable energy industry and ready to put green ideas and technologies into practice.

The Environmental Ministry reported in March that Germany last year produced 10.1 percent of its overall energy from renewable sources, such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydroelectric, up from 9.3 percent in 2008.