Günther criticizes lack of support for solar industry

Saxony's Energy and Environment Minister Wolfram Günther (Greens) has described the German government's lack of support for the domestic solar industry as a "major pain point". Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) must ask himself why he is pushing parts of the solar industry "over the cliff at the very moment when China is distorting the global solar market with dumping": "A strategically important industry could have been secured with temporary, very manageable sums. The fact that these resilience instruments have not been adopted is a hard industrial policy blow for the Free State of Saxony," explained Günther on Friday.

The Bundestag adopted a solar package on Friday. The expansion of solar energy is to be driven forward with a variety of measures. Among other things, there are plans to ease the burden on balcony power plants. Günther praised several points of the package of measures. However, the FDP rejected a "resilience bonus" to promote the domestic solar industry, which was primarily demanded by the Greens.

Solar energy, along with wind energy, is an important pillar of the energy transition - the gradual phasing out of energy from fossil sources such as coal and gas. The German government's target is for 80 percent of electricity to come from renewables by 2030. Last year, it was more than half. The expansion of solar power increased significantly in 2023.