OREANDA-NEWS. November 16, 2012. The KfW programmes for promoting renewable energies make an important contribution to achieving the energy and climate policy goals of the German Federal Government. This is illustrated in a study carried out by the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW) in Stuttgart. On behalf of KfW the Centre also calculated a range of positive economic impacts of loans granted by KfW for renewable energies in 2011 in Germany.

"In the past year KfW promotional loans mobilised investments amounting to EUR 8.3 billion for the construction of facilities using renewable energies. This represents 36 % of all investments made in Germany in 2011 for expanding renewable energies to supply electricity and heat. The climate protection effects are good for the energy turnaround. Supporting of new facilities through the Renewable Energy Sources Act - EEG is unexpectedly expensive for consumers. Therefore the law, in particular the remuneration, should rightfully be re-examined," said Dr Jorg Zeuner, Chief Economist of KfW Bankengruppe.

In addition, in 2011 promotional commitments were granted for the first time for the construction of offshore wind power plants with an investment volume of about EUR 3 billion. The investments associated with the construction of these plants will mainly be made in 2012 and 2013.

The importance of the KfW programmes for the electricity sector should be highlighted: In total 40 % of newly installed electricity capacity from renewable energies in Germany in 2011 was supported by KfW. The share of wind energy plants on land is particularly large at 72 %.

The climate protection effects attributed to the investments are considerable. Once fully operational, the facilities financed by KfW in 2011 lead to a long-term emissions reduction of about 7 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents per year. This alone corresponds to about 11 % of the additional CO2 reduction target that the Federal Government plans to achieve in the areas of electricity and heating by 2020 through the development of renewable energies. The reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and pollution through projects supported in 2011 can prevent global losses (primarily caused by climate change) amounting to approx. EUR 590 million annually.

Furthermore, the plants supported by KfW in 2011 lead to a reduction in energy imports worth an equivalent of some EUR 560 million annually. The energy imports saved over the 20 years of the plants' assumed useful life add up to about EUR 11.2 billion. This reduces Germany's dependence on energy imports.

By itself the production and construction of the facilities financed and also built this year (not including offshore wind power) have safeguarded or created more than 56,800 jobs in Germany for one year. In addition, the operation and maintenance of the facilities creates a further 2,570 jobs annually. About 74 % of the jobs were created in small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees. These figures underline the important role that the evaluated KfW programmes also play for SME promotion.