Effects of energy transition and the structural change on the extraction of natural resources in Germany

Climate change poses major challenges for players in politics, industry and civil society worldwide. Due to international and national plans to reduce emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases, the extractive industry must make a decisive contribution to achieving the goal of climate neutrality. The energy transition will have a significant impact on demand and sales of coal, oil and gas and will initiate or accelerate structural change in these industries. At the same time, the demand for natural resources for climate-neutral technologies, renewable energies, electric mobility and hydrogen is increasing (see Security of supply).

The Federal Republic of Germany is bound by various international guidelines to tackle climate change. In the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, the global community agreed for the first time in a legally binding manner to limit global warming to 1.5° Celsius compared to the pre-industrial age. The European Union has also set concrete targets with the European Green Deal (“European Climate Law”). The core element of all agreements is a massive reduction of greenhouse gases in order to reduce emissions in the EU by at least 55% by 2030 and achieve the EU’s greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050.

In order to fulfil these obligations, the Federal Republic pursues a national climate policy, as a result of which a number of laws have been passed in recent years. The Federal Climate Protection Act sets concrete annual reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions and formulates the target of greenhouse gas neutrality¹ by 2045. The 2020 “Coal Phase-Out Act”² regulates the gradual reduction and phasing out of coal-fired power generation by 2038.

In addition to the European emissions trading system, which has been in place since 2003, Germany set up its own national emissions trading system for pricing fossil greenhouse gas emissions at the start of 2021.

This chapter presents some of the laws in force in Germany to improve climate protection and highlights the state of development in the use of renewable energies. In addition, activities and measures are described that are being undertaken in Germany to tackle the challenges of the energy transition and structural change in the area of raw materials extraction.

Legal base

German Federal Climate Protection Act

The new Federal Climate Protection Act introduced in 2019 sets the legal framework for Germany’s climate policy. It sets out the German climate protection targets in law and contains a review and follow-up mechanism to ensure compliance with the climate protection targets.

The 2021 amendment adopted new, more ambitious climate protection targets with the aim of achieving net greenhouse gas neutrality in Germany by 2045. The interim targets are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 65% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and by at least 88% by 2040. In addition, the land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector is to be gradually developed into a reliable dip to -25 million tons in 2030 and to -40 million tons of CO2 equivalents in 2045. The 2024³ amendment abolished binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions for individual sectors, removing the obligation for these sectors to submit a sector-specific immediate action programme if targets are missed. In future, a cross-sectoral and multi-year overall calculation will be decisive for the decision on further climate protection measures as part of the follow-up. To this end, cross-sectoral annual emission totals were introduced, thus clarifying the overall responsibility of the German government for achieving the climate protection targets. In addition, the switch from prior-year estimates to projection data has resulted in a forward-looking approach. At the same time, each of the energy, industry, buildings, transport, agriculture and waste management sectors must continue to make its own appropriate contribution. The basis for determining this contribution is the annual emission volumes of the individual sectors.

The Federal Climate Protection Act provides for a review and readjustment mechanism to ensure compliance with the total annual emissions in the respective decade. By 15 March of each year, the Federal Environment Agency publishes the previous year’s greenhouse gas emissions data and the projection data for all individual years up to 2030 and at least for the years 2035, 2040 and 2045. These will be reviewed by the Expert Council for Climate Issues. If all sectors aggregated according to the projection data exceed the sum of the total annual emission volumes for the years 2021-2030, the Federal Government must adopt further climate protection measures to ensure compliance with the aggregated total annual emission volumes. To this end, all departments primarily responsible for sectors, but especially those that contribute to the overrun, must submit proposals for measures. The annual emission levels of the sectors are used for the assessment. The Federal Government will then decide on the measures to be taken.

According to the Expert Council for Climate Issues, the projection data for 2024 does not show compliance with the total annual emissions for the years 2021 to 2030 for the first time. On this basis and if this is re-determined, there could be an obligation to pay additional taxes in 2025. According to the projection data for 2024, the points target for 2030 will also fall just short of being achieved, but it is within reach for the first time ever.

The Climate Protection Act requires a climate protection programme that contains an overall plan of the federal government for climate protection policy and concrete measures⁴. The measures for industry include the promotion of low-emission technologies, the introduction of carbon pricing systems, support for the research and development of sustainable technologies and financial incentives for the modernisation of industrial production processes.

In July 2022, the Bundestag launched a comprehensive package of measures to improve planning and approval procedures for onshore wind energy. For example, the Renewable Energy Sources Act stipulates that the use of renewable energies is in the overriding public interest and serves public safety. Furthermore, the “Act to Increase and Accelerate the Expansion of Onshore Wind Energy Systems” was passed as a key component in further accelerating the expansion of onshore wind energy. This law introduces the Wind Energy Area Requirements Act (WindBG) and amends the Building Code, among other things. The main regulatory content is the legal implementation of the stipulation from the coalition agreement regarding a 2 percent area target for onshore wind energy. In addition, the amendments to the Federal Nature Conservation Act have standardised and simplified the species protection assessment of onshore wind turbines in the approval procedure, and the Federal/State Working Group on Soil Protection (LABO) has also published guidelines on the “Soil protection requirements for the dismantling of wind turbines”⁵

National Allowance Trading for Fuel Emissions

The European Emissions Trading System has been in place since 2005, setting a Europe-wide CO2 price for the energy sector, energy-intensive industries and intra-European aviation. The heating and transport sectors have not yet been included. This changed with the introduction of national fuel emissions trading in accordance with the Fuel Emissions Trading Act (BEHG) on 1 January 2021. The BEHG obliges companies that place fuels (heating and motor fuels) on the market to purchase emission allowances and surrender them by 30 September of the following year. The costs are usually passed on along the supply chain. As a result, the CO₂ price has a steering effect on end consumers, as more climate-friendly alternatives become increasingly attractive as prices rise.

For the introductory phase, the legislator has provided for a fixed price system. With an increasing but reliable price path, citizens and businesses should be able to gradually adjust to the CO2 price. At the same time, a trading platform is being set up to enable the certificates to be auctioned and traded. While an emissions certificate costs EUR 25 in 2021, companies will already have to pay EUR 55 per certificate in 2025. A price corridor of EUR 55 to 65 per emissions certificate is planned for 2026.

If national fuel emissions trading should lead to competitive disadvantages for German companies (known as carbon leakage), this should be offset as far as possible. The BECV (Ordinance on Measures to Prevent Carbon Leakage through National Fuel Emissions Trading) adopted by the German government relieves the burden on affected companies entitled to aid by providing financial compensation, but obliges them to invest in climate protection measures in return.

As of 1 January 2023, the financing of renewable energies has been completely restructured. The EEG levy was permanently abolished with the Energy Financing Act (EnFiG). This will reduce the price of electricity for citizens and industry.

This and other measures such as the increase in housing benefit are intended to make fuel emissions trading socially acceptable.

From 2027, national fuel emissions trading will be transferred to the newly created EU fuel emissions trading system in accordance with Directive 2003/87/EC.

German Coal Phase-Out Act

The key regulations for the German coal phase-out are set out in the Act on the Reduction and Termination of Coal-fired Power Generation (Act to Reduce and End Coal-Fired Power Generation – KVBG)⁶, which came into force in August 2020 as part of the Act on the Reduction and Termination of Coal-fired Power Generation and the Amendment of Other Acts (Coal Phase-out Act).⁷ At the same time, other energy industry regulations were amended in the Coal Phase-out Act – such as the German Energy Act, the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Act, the Renewable Energy Sources Act, the Combined Heat and Power Act, etc. The aim of the KVBG is to reduce the generation of electrical energy from coal in Germany in a socially responsible manner, gradually and as steadily as possible, and to phase it out by 2038 at the latest. The aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, a secure, affordable, efficient and climate-friendly supply of electricity to the general public should continue to be ensured. The legislative package contains provisions to reduce and end coal and lignite-fired power generation, to continuously review the security of supply, to cancel CO2 certificates that become available and for an adaptation payment for older employees in the coal sector (see Subsidies and tax concessions).

The reduction in hard coal-fired power generation will initially take place gradually between 2020 and 2026 through competitive tenders for hard coal plants already participating in the electricity market.⁸ In the tendering process, the plant operators specified a bid value at which they were prepared to refrain from firing coal in their plant. By participating in the competitive process, plant operators were able to receive appropriate financial compensation for phasing out hard coal. Small lignite-fired power plants up to 150 megawatts (MW) were also able to participate in the tenders. This should enable the defined target dates of 2022 (15 gigawatts (GW) each of hard coal and lignite), 2030 (8 GW of hard coal, 9 GW of lignite) and 2038 (zero GW) to be achieved. The possible maximum price per reduced MW fell from EUR 165,000/MW (2020) to EUR 89,000/MW (2026). In the event that the statutory reduction targets for hard coal capacities are not achieved, the tendering process will be accompanied by regulatory provisions from 2024. From 2027, closures in the hard coal sector will be carried out exclusively on the basis of regulatory provisions.

On 25 November 2020, the European Commission granted state aid approval for the statutory regulations on the reduction and termination of hard coal-fired power generation. To reduce and end lignite-based electricity generation in Germany, the KVBG sets out a binding plan for the decommissioning of lignite plants. Among other things, it contains mandatory decommissioning dates and regulations on compensation for the operators of decommissioned lignite plants. Accordingly, RWE will receive EUR 2.6 billion and LEAG will receive EUR 1.75 billion. The statutory regulations are accompanied by a public law agreement in which – among other regulations – the lignite operators have committed to the socially responsible decommissioning of all power plants. In accordance with Annex 2 of the Act to Reduce and End Coal-Fired Power Generation (KVBG), the decommissioning dates for the individual lignite-fired power plants range from 2020 to 2038. The agreement also contains provisions on the use of the compensation payments to cover and secure the post-mining costs as well as a comprehensive waiver of legal remedies by the operators of the lignite plants. In the Lausitz coalfield, compensation payments are made to special purpose vehicles that were set up as part of precautionary agreements between the lignite operator and the states of Brandenburg and Saxony (see Managing human intervention in nature and landscape). From 2025, the annual compensation instalments attributable to the respective special purpose vehicle are to be contributed to the special purpose vehicles by the federal government. The additional contributions made by LEAG in the years 2021 to 2024 can be partially reimbursed by the Federal Government.

The European Commission is reviewing the appropriateness of the compensation payments to the operators of the lignite-fired power plants and their special purpose vehicles in a main investigation procedure under state aid law. The aim of the procedure is to achieve greater legal certainty for all parties involved. The compensation to RWE has already been approved by the European Commission on 11 December 2023. The European Commission’s investigation has no suspensive effect on the agreed decommissioning path for the power plants. The European Commission has procedural sovereignty.

Structural Strengthening Act

The end of coal-fired power generation also means the end of coal production in Germany. While hard coal production in Germany already ended on 31 December 2018 (see Subsidies and tax concessions) and the remaining hard coal plants are operated with imported coal, lignite plants are operated exclusively with lignite from domestic production. This production will be reduced in accordance with the decommissioning plan set out in the Act to Reduce and End Coal-Fired Power Generation and will end by 2038. The Structural Strengthening Act for Coal Regions (Structural Strengthening Act)⁹ came into force at the same time as the Coal Phase-out Act in order to mitigate the economic and structural consequences of the phase-out of coal-fired power generation and to promote economic growth in the regions affected by the coal phase-out.

An essential part is the new Coal Regions Investment Act. Its so-called first pillar consists of financial aid from the federal government for projects in the federal states. A total of up to EUR14 billion is available for this purpose, which can be used to fund investments in lignite mining areas with up to 90%. The possible applications are wide-ranging and range from the promotion of business-related infrastructure to tourism projects, research facilities, digitalisation, urban and regional development and climate and environmental protection measures.

The so-called second pillar supports measures that fall under the sole responsibility of the federal government. Up to EUR 26 billion have been earmarked for this purpose. As part of these measures, for example, transport routes to the coal regions will be improved, research projects and centres will be funded and federal institutions will be established locally.

Additional support of up to EUR 1.09 billion will also be provided to hard coal-fired power plant locations that are structurally weak and where hard coal is of particular economic importance.

These funding instruments aimed at investments are supplemented by the STARK federal programme, which primarily supports non-investment projects.¹⁰ A wide range of funding areas is covered. For example, STARK can finance the operation of structural development companies or technology transfer projects. In August 2024, the STARK federal programme was amended and expanded to include investment components. In future, among other things, direct business development will be possible on the basis of the TCTF.

Heat Planning Act

The Heat Planning Act, which came into force on 1 January 2024, introduces systematic heat planning throughout Germany. The aim of the law is to make a significant contribution to the transition to a greenhouse gas-neutral heat supply by 2045 at the latest. This is to be achieved through coordinated planning and development of local energy infrastructures and a switch to renewable energies, unavoidable waste heat or a combination of these sources.

The law obliges the federal states to draw up or have drawn up heating plans that provide citizens and businesses with guidance on which heating supply option is most suitable in their area. As a rule, the federal states will transfer this obligation to the municipalities. The heating plans should be available by mid-2026 (municipal areas with more than 100,000 inhabitants) or mid-2028 (other municipal areas) at the latest. The law enables both centralised solutions such as district heating and decentralised solutions such as heat pumps.

The Heat Planning Act ensures strategic planning at municipal level, while the GeoWG (09/2024 in draft form, see below) ensures that technological options are available. These laws complement each other and thus contribute to meeting the federal government’s climate targets and ensuring a sustainable, climate-friendly heat supply.

Geothermal and Heat Pump Act (GeoWG)

In September 2024, the Federal Cabinet passed a draft law to accelerate the approval procedures for geothermal energy plants, heat pumps and heat storage systems (GeoWG). The draft is currently in the parliamentary voting process (as of 12/2024).

The draft law is intended to implement the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) for the geothermal energy sector in mining law and also contains extensive acceleration elements in water, nature conservation and mining law as well as in legal protection procedures. Among other things, it regulates the specification of an overriding public interest for geothermal energy, heat pumps and heat storage systems and the introduction of maximum deadlines for approval procedures, as well as procedural simplifications such as deadlines for the authorities to check the completeness of documents. Private households no longer need to obtain an authorisation under water law for small groundwater heat pumps and geothermal collectors. The draft law also contains provisions on the digitalisation of the relevant approval procedures.

The law is closely linked to the WHG amendment passed by the cabinet on 28 August. It contains short procedural deadlines for large heat pumps and small heat pumps as well as a digitalisation requirement for the approval procedure.

Renewable energies

Renewable energies in Germany

Renewable energies¹¹ make a large and growing contribution to Germany’s energy supply. In 2023, renewable energies accounted for 22% of total final energy consumption.

The share is particularly high in the electricity sector. In 2023, around 52% of gross electricity consumption was covered by renewable sources (272.4 TWh). The German government has set itself the goal of increasing the share of renewable energies in the electricity supply to 80% by 2030 and almost completely decarbonising the energy supply by 2050, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, around 83.9% of greenhouse gas emissions (601.7 Mt CO₂ equivalents) in Germany were attributable to the combustion of fossil fuels.

Fossil-fired power plants are currently needed alongside renewable energies in order to meet the energy demand in Germany.

Some of the metals required for the energy transition, such as indium, germanium and gallium, are natural resource by-products, i.e. they are obtained as a by-product of mining another metal. For these metals, the raw material supply control loop¹² only works to a limited extent. There is potential for such deposits in Germany and Europe, so that import dependencies could be reduced with targeted deposit development, corresponding investments and raw material extraction. The same applies to certain quarried natural resources that are being extracted for the expansion of renewable energies, such as wind power, in Germany. The ever larger wind turbines also require ever larger quantities of mineral raw materials, almost all of which come from German deposits. In its 80 m high bottom concrete part, for example, a 140 m high wind turbine tower requires approx. 430 m³ of concrete (consisting of 167 tons of sand, 626 tons of gravel or grit, 147 tons of limestone and marlstone, 9 tons of clay and sand and 5 tons of gypsum to produce the 125 tons of cement also required for concrete production), approx. 35 tons of reinforcing steel and approx. 20 tons of prestressing steel in production. Such a tower also requires a stable foundation with a diameter of 21.5 m in this case. Such a foundation requires approx. 600 m³ of concrete and approx. 70 tons of reinforcing steel. The production of glass fibre reinforced plastics (GFRP) for rotor blades requires primary raw materials such as quartz sand, soda, limestone, dolomite, kaolin and feldspar, which are also extracted in Germany. For almost all materials used in a wind turbine there are

disposal routes that are suitable for recycling the mineral raw materials.¹³ In view of the necessary expansion of this energy infrastructure to achieve climate protection targets, a corresponding expansion of domestic raw material extraction and processing is to be expected.¹⁴

Investments in renewable energy plants amounted to EUR36.6 billion in 2023, while the operation of existing plants generated EUR23.1 billion in revenue. The expansion of renewable energies can create a large number of new jobs through increasing demand for electricity and heat as well as goods and services produced using renewable energies. In 2022, the Renewable Energies sector provided employment for more than 387,000 people.¹⁵ The focus was on renewable energies in electricity generation. The expansion of renewables in this area is financed by feed-in tariffs that are higher than the electricity exchange price. The difference in costs between the electricity price on the exchange and the remuneration for electricity from renewable energy plants (EEG) has so far been paid by electricity consumers via the EEG surcharge as part of their electricity bill.

The German government has also abolished the EEG surcharge as of 1 January 2023 in view of the large “cost backpack” of old systems. The EEG costs are no longer paid via the electricity bill, but from the federal budget. This makes electricity cheaper and promotes the energy transition. The government has thus also taken a major step towards reducing prices for private households and companies. Everyone benefits from this relief.

For the further expansion of renewable energies, industrial energy projects must be suitably combined with the development of renewable energies. This also applies to the German raw materials industry, which has already installed a number of projects in the wind, biomass, geothermal, solar and hydropower sectors in Germany.

Renewable energy sources are used in electricity generation as well as in heat generation and in the transport sector. The most important renewable energy source in the electricity sector is wind energy: In 2022, more than half (49.1%) of renewable electricity was generated from wind energy.¹⁶ Wind energy plays a key role in the development of renewable energies towards an economically viable and climate-friendly energy supply at reasonable prices and a high level of prosperity. The use of the wind energy accounted for 22.7% of Germany’s electricity consumption in 2022. Wind turbines have now been erected at various former mining sites, primarily on green spoil tips with favourable wind conditions. In addition to further expansion at suitable onshore locations and the replacement of old, smaller turbines with modern and more powerful ones – known as repowering – the expansion of offshore wind energy is becoming increasingly important. In 2022, plants with an installed capacity of around 2,400 MW on land and around 340 MW at sea were added. At the end of 2022, a total of around 66,176 MW of wind turbine capacity were available in Germany which produced around 124,800 GWh of electricity in 2022; one fifth of this at sea. ^17,18 According to the German government’s plans, a capacity of at least 30,000 MW of offshore wind and 115,000 MW of onshore wind energy should be connected to the grid by 2030. In view of the expansion and the ever-increasing output units (more than 10 MW per wind turbine at sea), the demand for mineral raw materials will also increase. For example, concrete is needed to build the foundations of wind turbines. This is accompanied by a corresponding increase in demand for limestone for cement production and aggregates such as gravel and sand.

Biomass has become a relevant energy source for electricity generation. Due to the competing uses of land for food and fodder cultivation and energy production, bioenergy for electricity generation should be maintained at roughly the current level. In the meantime, the total capacity of plants generating electricity from biomass is 10,433 MW, with electricity generation in 2022 amounting to around 51,700 GWh (9.4% of total electricity consumption, 20.3% of renewable electricity generation). In addition to biogas (including biomethane, landfill gas and sewage gas), solid and liquid biomass and biogenic waste are also used to generate electricity, but biogas is the most important biogenic energy source for electricity generation, accounting for around 59% (2022) of the entire biomass.

Another renewable energy source with great potential is solar power generation. Around 2.7 million photovoltaic systems convert radiant energy directly into electricity and provided a total of around 67,400 MW of installed capacity in Germany at the end of 2022. In 2022, around 7,300 MW of power was added. As a result, electricity generation from photovoltaics is also continuing to rise, reaching a good 60,300 GWh in 2022. Photovoltaics thus covered 10.95% of total gross electricity consumption and provided 23.7% of the renewable electricity supply. German mining companies are also increasingly opting to use photovoltaic systems at various mining industry sites in Germany. By 2030, the total installed capacity for the use of solar radiation energy in Germany is expected to be 215,000 MW.

In addition to wind, biomass and photovoltaics, hydropower also contributed to electricity generation with around 17,600 GWh (2022).

Renewable energy sources are also increasingly being used in the heating sector. In 2022, a total of around 203,300 GWh was generated from renewable heat sources. The most important renewable energy source for heat generation, at around 132,000 GWh, is biogenic solids, predominantly wood, for example in the form of wood pellets. Biogas, biogenic waste and geothermal and environmental heat harnessed by heat pumps are also relevant renewable heat energy sources with approx. 15,000 GWh (biogas, biogenic waste) and approx. 21,700 GWh (heat pumps) of heat generated in 2022. Solar thermal energy also contributed a good 9,700 GWh to the heat supply. Deep geothermal energy is a base load-capable form of energy that makes a small but fixed contribution to electricity and heat generation. In general, the great potential of geothermal energy in Germany is not being exploited.¹⁹ In addition to energy generation, deep geothermal energy can also be used as a material at some locations, for example to extract lithium from the extracted brine. The use of brine can improve the economic viability of geothermal projects, particularly in the Upper Rhine Graben and the North German Basin. However, despite existing pilot projects, there is still a considerable need for research in this area.²⁰

In the transport sector, biomass can reduce CO₂ emissions, especially in the form of biofuels such as bioethanol, biodiesel or biogas for cars, trucks, trains, ships and aeroplanes. Electric vehicles are also a way to reduce CO₂ emissions. In 2022, renewable energies accounted for 6.9% of fuel consumption in Germany. Thanks to its flexible use in the electricity, heating and transport sectors, biomass is thus the most important renewable energy source overall. In 2022, around 51.7% of the total final energy from renewable energy sources was provided by the various biomass sources used for energy purposes.

The expansion and use of renewable energies contributes to the avoidance of greenhouse gas emissions and reduces the use of fossil fuels. The savings also reduce the proportion of necessary imports of mineral oil, natural gas and hard coal. However, despite the expansion of renewable energies, conventional power plants are currently still needed to meet the overall energy demand.

Structure of primary energy consumption in Germany 2020: 11.829 PJ​ in total

Source: Working Group on Energy Balances April 2022 and AGEE-Stat. of February 2022. For detailed source information see endnotes.

¹ Greenhouse gas neutrality means a balance between anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases from sources and the removal of such gases by sinks. If greenhouse gases continue to be emitted in Germany in 2045, the same amount must be removed from the atmosphere in the annual balance through negative emissions.

² Federal Ministry of Justice (BMJ) (2020): Coal Phase-Out Act (KohleAusG). URL: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/kohleausg/BJNR181800020.html (accessed 5 April 2024)

³ The Federal Government (2024): A plan for the climate. URL: https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/themen/tipps-fuer-verbraucher/klimaschutzgesetz-2197410 (accessed 9 October 2024).

⁴ German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) (2023): Federal Cabinet adopts comprehensive climate protection programme 2023. URL: https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/DE/Pressemitteilungen/2023/10/20231004-bundeskabinett-verabschiedet-umfassendes-klimaschutzprogramm-2023.html (accessed 9 October 2024).

⁵ Engineering office “Schnittstelle Boden” by order of the Federal/State Working Group on Soil Protection (Labo) (2023): Soil protection requirements for the dismantling of wind turbines. URL: https://www.labo-deutschland.de/documents/Leitfaden_Rueckbau_von_Windenergieanlagen_UMK-Fassung.pdf (accessed 9 October 2024).

⁶ Act to Reduce and End Coal-Fired Power Generation URL: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/kvbg/inhalts_bersicht.html (accessed 25 October 2024).

⁷ Coal Phase-Out Act https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/kohleausg/BJNR181800020.html: Act to Reduce and End Coal-Fired Power Generation. URL: (Accessed 5 December 2024).

⁸ Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) (2024): Information on the completed tendering procedures for the coal phase-out. URL: https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/DE/Fachthemen/ElektrizitaetundGas/Kohleausstieg/BeendeteAusschreibungen/start.html (accessed 15 October 2024)

⁹ German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) (2023): Structural Strengthening Act for Coal Regions. URL: https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/DE/Textsammlungen/Wirtschaft/strukturstaerkungsgesetz-kohleregionen.html (accessed 5 December 2024).

¹⁰ German Agency for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) (2024): STARK – Strengthening the transformation momentum and new beginnings in the regions and at the coal-fired power plant sites. URL: https://www.bafa.de/DE/Wirtschaft/Beratung_Finanzierung/Stark_2/stark_2_node.html (accessed 28 October 2024).

¹¹ The Working Group on Renewable Energy Statistics (AGEE-Stat) provides up-to-date and quality-assured data on the development of renewable energies in Germany. See German Federal Environment Agency (2024): Renewable energy in figures. URL https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/klima-energie/erneuerbare-energien/erneuerbare-energien-in-zahlen#uberblick (accessed 28 November 2024).

¹² For the raw material supply control loop refer to the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR): Raw material availability. URL: https://www.bgr.bund.de/DE/Themen/Min_rohstoffe/Rohstoffverfuegbarkeit/rohstoffverfuegbarkeit_node.html (accessed 6 December 2024).

¹³ See German Federal Environment Agency (2020): Wind turbines: Decommissioning, recycling, repowering. URL: https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/abfall-ressourcen/produktverantwortung-in-der-abfallwirtschaft/windenergieanlagen-rueckbau-recycling-repowering (accessed 6 December 2024).

¹⁴ Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) (2021): Natural resources – Mining, recycling, resource efficiency – important for prosperity and jobs. URL: Natural resources – Mining, recycling, resource efficiency – important for prosperity and jobs (accessed 27 November 2024).

¹⁵ German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) (2024): Renewable energies. URL: https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/DE/Dossier/erneuerbare-energien#entwicklung-in-zahlen (accessed 9 October 2024).

¹⁶ German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) (2024): Renewable energies. URL: https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/DE/Dossier/erneuerbare-energien#entwicklung-in-zahlen (accessed 9 October 2024).

¹⁷ German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) (2024): Renewable energies in Germany – data on development in 2023. URL: https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/479/publikationen/2024_uba_hg_erneuerbareenergien_dt.pdf (accessed 9 October 2024).

¹⁸ German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) (2024): Report of the Federal-State Cooperation Committee. URL: https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/DE/Downloads/E/EEG-Kooperationsausschuss/2023/bericht-bund-laender-kooperationsausschuss-2023.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=12 (accessed 9 October 2024).

¹⁹ Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe [Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources] (2024): BGR Energy Study 2023. URL: https://www.bgr.bund.de/DE/Themen/Energie/Produkte/produkte_node.html?tab=Energiestudien (accessed 5 April 2024).

²⁰ Bundesverband Geothermie e. V. (2020): State of research and research needs for geothermal energy. URL: https://www.geothermie.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Forschung_Papier_2020_A4_20201217_Final_interaktiv.pdf (accessed 5 April 2024).