The background for public support of renewable energy and bioenergy, both by the German Government and by the EU, is the finite nature of fossil-based resources and the increasing climate change effects, i.e. GHG emissions. Accordingly, the strategies for securing the energy supply and for protecting the environment, respectively, include energy savings and higher energy efficiency, but also focus on the use of renewable energies.
The German Government's goals and measures aim to increase the share of renewables, e.g. biomass of the total energy demand. These goals are based on the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) issued by the European Union in 2009, and are anchored in the following:
The Biomass Action Plan highlights the potentials for bioenergy in Germany. Beside the description of the proportion that is already being used, it points out utilisable reserves. Regarding this, it contains the strategies of the German Government to increase the share of bioenergy from RES in the sectors heating & cooling, electricity and transport, and the adopted measures in this context.
Likewise, in its Energy Concept, in which bioenergy is an integral part of Germany's overall concept for energy supply in the future, the German Government declares its commitment to the expansion of the three sectors: heating & cooling, electricity and transport deriving from RES. The Energy Concept formulates guidelines for an energy supply that is reliable and affordable and environmentally friendly. As part of this, a long-term strategy, looking as far into the future as 2050, maps out the path for the far-reaching conversion to renewable sources. As a result of the Fukushima catastrophe in spring in 2011, the intention is to implement the Energy Concept even faster as originally foreseen.
Important measures of the Energy Concept:
Furthermore the aim is to double the rate of building refurbishments from less than 1% at present to 2% to improve the energy efficiency of the building stock. In the transport sector the goal is to reduce the energy consumption up to 10 percent by the year 2020 and around 40 percent by the 2050.
Expansion measures and restrictions on bioenergy are described as follows in the Energy Concept:
Beside political directives and concepts mentioned in the context of future expansion of bioenergy, numerous state legislative regulations are decisive in terms of flanking the current areas of use and also giving support to the attainment of further goals. This includes regulations, ordinances and directives that determine the requirements, prohibitions, obligations to use, tax incentives, financial support given to investment aid and levels of remuneration (cf. e.g. EU Common Agricultural Policy, CAP).
The following regulations that relate to bioenergy are of particular interest: