Germany Threatened by Energy Overcapacity, FT Deutschland Says

Competition by Germany’s regions to produce renewable energy as the country shifts away from nuclear and coal power could cause overcapacity if the process isn’t coordinated, the Financial Times Deutschland reported.

Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with state premiers next week to discuss greater cooperation as regional governments develop plans to build wind and clean-energy capacity, the newspaper said. Competing plans could cause overcapacity in the coming decades, the FTD cited Hildegard Mueller, who heads the BDEW industry association, as saying.

The northern state of Schleswig-Holstein aims to produce by 2020 three times more energy from offshore wind parks than its population uses, and southern states such as Bavaria are planning more energy self-sufficiency, the newspaper said.

Overcapacity could be costly for consumers because German regulations require them to pay for unused power generation, the newspaper said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net