A lot has been written, shared and debated over if the Covid pandemic will boost the fate of renewable energy sources or reverse the gain they have achieved in recent years. As noticed in the recent US agency report, the renewable energy sources surpassed the coal industry in the US after 130 years. It will be interesting to see how this pandemic will impact the renewable energy sector.
Following the debate, a new green economic stimulus was announced by Germany recently which heavily promotes adoption of electric cars. This stimulus package was agreed between the German coalition government partners and is believed to support their national vision of achieving a carbon neutral economy by 2050.
The stimulus was announced to recover the economy from the effects of the Covid pandemic. The electric car sector benefited from the package as the government doubled the existing subsidies to 6000 euros on cars that cost up to 40000 euros. The sales tax has been reduced to 16% from 19% and that will also benefit car buyers who are looking to own a new shiny electric car.
Electric cars is not the only green sector to benefit from the announced package. The package establishes a 50 billion euros fund for addressing climate change, innovation and digitization. This economic package could boost the electric car market in Europe and place Volkswagen in a benefiting position.
A recent analysis published on Yale Environment 360 provides insight on how this pandemic could make the renewable sector a hot market. The analysis predicted that the electric car sector may shrink during the pandemic but the use of renewable energy sources could see an upward trend. The analysis agrees that the policy changes matter and the big stimulus package, as announced by Germany, will be a vehicle to move these sectors forward.
The pandemic is certainly not good but it is a right event to turn the heat to promote renewable energy and climate actions.
Read more:
https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-renewable-energy-could-emerge-on-top-after-the-pandemic