This paper presents evidence that the accumulating cost of Germany’s ambitious plan to transform its system of energy provision – the so-called Energiewende – is butting up against consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for it. Following a descriptive presentation that traces the German...

Um die Energiewende zu schaffen, muss Windstrom vom Norden in den Rest des Landes transportiert werden. Die Mehrheit der Deutschen hat zwar prinzipiell nichts gegen den dafür notwendigen Netzausbau. Sobald die Stromtrasse aber vor der eigenen Haustür verlegt werden soll, regt sich vielerorts...

The allure of an environmentally benign, abundant, and cost-effective energy source has led an increasing number of industrialized countries to back public financing of renewable energies. Germany's experience with renewable energy promotion is often cited as a model to be replicated elsewhere,...

This article revisits an analysis by Frondel, Ritter and Schmidt (2008) of Germany's Renewable Energy Act, which legislates a system of feed-in tariff s to promote the use of renewable energies. As in the original article, we argue that Germany's support scheme subsidizes renewable energy...