Study Of The German Renewable Energy Sources Act-RES Act 2014 And Its Latest Revision

In recent years,Germany has been promoting the development of renewable energy vigorously,and its utilization with a clear representation has reached the leading level all around the world.Such a remarkable result is closely linked with its government support and legal policies,in particular,benefiting from renewable energy law as the core of the entire legal system.Germany's Renewable Energy Law 2014(EEG-2014)was formally promulgated on August 1,2014.It is the current legal version in Germany and also the most advanced and sophisticated renewable energy law in the world.EEG-2014 aims to achieve the sustainable development of energy supply,reduce the cost of the national economy while taking into account the premise of long-term external effects of energy supply,reduce the use of traditional fossil fuels,promote a steady increase in the proportion of renewable energy sources in energy supply,and further promote the use and development of renewable energy power generation technologies.EEG-2014 includes General provisions,Connection,purchase,transmission and distribution,Financial support,Equalisation scheme,Transparency,Legal protection and official procedures and Authorisations to issue ordinances,reports,transitional provisions,a total of 104 sections plus four Annexes.It is very complex,with a comprehensive and meticulous content and high execution.It has following significant features: under the laws of the European Union,the strategic deployment and adjustment mechanism is planned,grid-connection priority and EEG surcharges are required,the amount of subsidy for new equipment is reduced,the amount of subsidy is determined through tender,the direct sales obligation is stipulated,the implementation of electricity-intensive enterprises sharing tax relief policy,refinement for the self-supply policy,to make the transition of existing investment regulations and put forward the future planning.With the development of practice,EEG-2014 is also constantly changing.After a number of major amendments,the Feed-in-Tariff policy will be replaced by a comprehensive bidding mechanism,and the new auction system will pay more attention to renewable energy development of the market and low-cost,as a result the open auction will lead renewable energy projects to more vitality.China is also vigorously promoting the energy transformation process,taking various measures to promote the development and utilization of renewable energy and introducing special legal policy guidelines to ensure the development of renewable energy.However,due to many reasons,China's renewable energy development is relatively slow,and renewable energy legal system is still in urgent need of development and improvement stage.Via studying Germany's advanced experience,combined with China's reality,the suggestions are as follows: pay attention to scientific and rigorous legislation and improve the operability of legal norms;gradually improve the pricing mechanism of renewable energy power generation;clarify the rights and obligations and legal responsibilities of the relevant legal subjects;establish and improve the public participation system;establish and improve the supervision and management system;promote the market-oriented development of renewable energy.