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Comment by tgsovlerkhgsel | Hacker News Reader

As a result of primarily this subsidy regime (with a small assist from very high taxes on electricity), consumer electricity prices in Germany are the second-highest in the EU: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/images/a/...

For non-household consumers, prices are more in line with the rest of the EU: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/images/a/... - and I suspect that statistic mixes small commercial consumers that pay residential rates and industrial ones, because to my knowledge, this subsidy is paid mostly by small consumers while industry and export are exempt...

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This is a little off topic but why did you end your comment with ellipsis? What do you mean with its usage?

It's showing that they're at a loss for words from the fact that industry is exempt.

exactly

It is the result of an energy dependence on Russia that has been built up over years, not due to any specific subsidiaries.

That could explain it if prices were high in general (i.e. also for industry).

https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/152973/umfrag... shows that 2014-2021 over six cents per kWh were going to the renewable energy subsidy scheme, and this is directly attributable, not some kind of hand-waving. I believe this was more than the wholesale cost of the electricity (without grid fees and taxes) in many of these years, and I think you also have to add another 19% of VAT on top of that.

In 2022 the subsidy started to be paid from taxes instead, and it was lower because market-based electricity prices went up (reducing the amount of subsidy necessary to reach the guaranteed prices).

Germanay's CO2 emissions from electricity have also been on the high side compared with most of Europe due to coal so it having higher prices is not necessarily a bad thing, as it incentives efficiency.

It's not ideal if it slows adoption of EVs and Heat pumps because politics prevents you properly pricing the fossil alternatives to thise, but the ideal solution would be for those to be taxed based on their emissions too.

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