Energy Policy: How Reiche Risks the Auto Industry’s Hopes for the Future

Enpal and 1komma5grad normally compete fiercely for homeowners seeking solar panels, battery storage and wall boxes. Now the two companies have joined forces against part of the German government’s planned solar-subsidy reform.

Their common target is a proposal to restrict how much electricity small solar systems can feed into the grid. The systems would reportedly be allowed to supply only half of their electricity, a change that threatens a business model on which Volkswagen and BMW are also betting.

The government has been working for months to redirect solar-power support and reform Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act, known as the EEG, which expires at the end of the year. Representatives of the renewable-energy industry have already criticized CDU Economy Minister Katherina Reiche over plans to remove guaranteed payments for electricity fed into the grid by small solar installations.

Reiche is facing pressure on other fronts as well. Opposition parties and industry experts accuse her of underestimating low gas-storage levels. She is also increasingly viewed by some as a disruptive force within the government. On Tuesday, a letter from her ministry became public in which she sharply criticized a joint income-tax reform agreed by the conservative Union bloc and the Social Democrats, putting coalition harmony under strain.