A news leak suggests that the German government is planning to halve its wind energy goals in order to tackle capacity problems with its power grid. Currently, northern Germany's wind farms are producing so much green power that Berlin has needed to pay them to turn the turbines off. The claim is that the moves to curb the rapidly growing wind energy sector will be necessary to prevent the green power revolution from being a victim of its own success.

Germany Could Lose Green Leader Status

However, critics say that the measure will strike a real blow for Germany's ability to remain a renewable energy leader on the world stage. The news was published this week in German press after being leaked from the federal network agency. 

The Industry Grew Too Fast

When Angela Merkel said back in 2011 that the country was working to phase out its array of nuclear power plants by 2022, many believed that renewable power alternatives couldn't be grown fast enough to meet the country's energy needs. However, in only five years, northern state wind farms are generating so much energy that the developers are being paid to switch them off and avoid flooding the grid. 

Supply and Demand Are Yet to Converge

The southern states boast a powerful manufacturing industry which demand green energy, but concerns about 'monster pylons' have prevented the necessary infrastructure work from taking place. Alternative plans to invest in underground cabling - a more expensive solution - were approved last year, but the project is well over 18 months behind its original rollout schedule.

Wind farms in the north produced enough excess green energy to power over 1.2 million German households for a whole year in 2015.