Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
number of members from the academic community.
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Not only does this
inclusive process permit more stakeholders to have a voice in policymaking,
but the comprehensive nature of input into these studies equipped policy-
makers with a comparatively sophisticated understanding of the pros and
cons of diferent renewable energy technologies.
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5.6.3 Fiscal Health
hroughout the history of Germany's wind power program, the government
has been struggling with inancial fetters imposed by an ever-increasing
amount of public debt. In 1998, when the wind power program really
took of, government public debt amounted to €1.185 trillion, equating to
approximately 61% of Germany's 1998 GDP. By 2005 public debt had risen
to €1.524 trillion; and by 2011 German public debt had risen to €2.088
trillion, equal to 81% of Germany's 2011 GDP. his debt load continues to
adversely inluence government expenditures because servicing the debt
consumes funds that could be used for other projects. For example, in 2005,
€40 billion was earmarked to service the outstanding public debt. his rep-
resented 16% of total government expenditures for the year.
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In order to attenuate the rise of public debt, the government enacted a debt
brake policy in 2009, which was embedded in the constitution. he debt brake
places a limit on the size of planned annual structural budget deicits. he limit
luctuates to interface with Germany's countercyclical taxes and reserves. In
2011, this debt brake amounted to approximately 0.35% of GDP at the federal
level and 0% at the state level. Even before the debt brake was institutional-
ized, for the past decade, the German government exhibited proclivity toward
trying to reduce budget deicits by shifting the burden of program inancing to
private enterprise or passing along program costs to end-consumers whenever
possible. In essence this has been the case with Germany's electricity feed-in
tarif; the costs of this tarif have progressively been passed along to electricity
end-consumers in the form of rate hikes.
5.6.4 Policy Regime
As the history of wind power development described earlier suggests, direct
government involvement in shaping the future of renewable energy tech-
nologies was evident and inluential during all stages of development.
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In the heady early days of the wind power program before government
alarm over the increasing size of public debt, there was a tendency for
