STOCKHOLM/FRANKFURT, Aug 26 (Reuters) – Swedish power group
Vattenfall [VATN.UL] said on Thursday it had reached an
agreement in a dispute with Germany over investment in the
Moorburg coal-fired power plant in Hamburg.

Vattenfall said the two sides had agreed to end arbitration
proceedings initiated by Vattenfall at the International Centre
for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) two years ago.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2009 fell 1.3 percent to 31.3 billion tonnes in the first year-on-year decline in this decade, German renewable energy institute IWR said on Friday.

The Muenster-based institute, which advises German ministries, cited the global economic crisis and rising investments in renewable energies for the fall in emissions.

FRANKFURT, Aug 13 (Reuters) – Global carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions in 2009 fell 1.3 percent to 31.3 billion tonnes in the
first year-on-year decline in this decade, German renewable
energy institute IWR said on Friday.

For a related table on the data, which are based on IWR
research and official information, click on [ID:nLDE67C0FK].

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany is at the forefront of installing renewable energy but there is an Achilles heel to its strategy.

The wind does not always blow and the sun may not shine all day.

The share of renewables in power production is set to nearly double by 2020 to 30 percent of total output, but only small power volumes can currently be stored in oversupply periods.

FRANKFURT, May 10 (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition may have trouble pushing through planned nuclear lifetime extensions after a German regional election on Sunday went awry for the government. [ID:nLDE64801V]

North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, left Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Free Democrat (FDP) allies short of their previous state majority, leaving the make-up of the next government unclear.

Many voters who punished the Berlin government for agreeing to aid Greece and for a local party sponsorship scandal are also critical of Merkel’s plans to reverse a nuclear exit programme.

Merkel, whose coalition has a majority in parliament’s Bundestag lower house, could now be blocked on many issues in the Bundesrat upper house, which represents the states.

"The nuclear extension has become politically more difficult because the majority in the Bundesrat has been lost," said Theo Kitz, analyst at Merck Finck.

Utility shares lagged a broad market rally. [ID:nLDE6490TZ]

Utilities have hoped to be able to run the country’s 17 remaining reactors longer than the agreed 32 years. But they also have scenarios in place to close them as planned.

This is not least because even the conservative Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen has signalled he favours renewables and he would be stingy on the extensions, both in length of years and in terms of splitting additional revenues between private and public-sector stakeholders.

Utility RWE <RWEG.DE> on Sunday struck a deal with peer E.ON <EONGn.DE> to buy production quotas from an idled E.ON reactor, giving lifeblood to its ageing Biblis A nuclear plant which otherwise would have needed to close this year. [ID:nLDE6480J2]

If the nuclear life extension plan can go ahead without needing approval by the Bundesrat, Merkel’s government could in theory ignore the North Rhine-Westphalia result and grant longer life cycles for the reactors.

But a panel of legal experts advising the Bundestag said the upper house has to approve any agreement to extend the lifetime of nuclear plants. [ID:nWEA1292] Opponents to this view say the original nuclear exodus law did not need Bundesrat approval.

It was a mistake that the cabinet failed to put in place clarification on this ahead of the regional election, which could have insulated it from fall-out, said another analyst.

It will also be hemmed in by the individual state’s nuclear supervisory authorities, which might differ from its course.



TWO SCENARIOS FOR NORTH RHINE-WESTPHALIA

If there was a grand coalition of the Conservatives and Social Democrats (SPD), the SPD would stick to the nuclear exodus as it drew it up 10 years ago with its junior partners, the Greens Party and industry, as a prestige object.

The conservatives might salvage extensions in other states.

If the SPD form a coalition with the ultra-left party The Left — which wants to disempower utilities — and Greens, who want to move away from fossil fuels, it would have trouble maintaining coal- and nuclear-biased energies.

This could anger its blue-collar electorate.

For a Factbox on plants’ quotas please click on [ID:nLS3850]

(Additional reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff, Markus Wacket, Peter Dinkloh; Editing by Amanda Cooper)

FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) – Germany and Britain have arrested 25 people and are investigating others in connection with suspected tax evasion in carbon permit trading, their respective tax authorities said on Friday.

Britain’s HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) told Reuters it had arrested 8 people in Scotland and 13 more in the rest of the UK after a search of 81 businesses and residential premises.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Frankfurt prosecutors said on Friday they had arrested four people in Germany and Britain in connection with suspected tax evasion in carbon permit trading and 50 more people were being investigated.

He declined to name individuals, as is customary under German law. Deutsche Bank said seven of its employees were suspects in the investigation.

FRANKFURT, April 28 (Reuters) – German prosecutors said on
Wednesday they had searched more than 230 sites in an
investigation based on suspicions of tax evasion in the trading
of European Union carbon dioxide emissions permits.

There were suspicions that carbon permits had been obtained
by suspects abroad via German companies and sold on through a
chain of other firms, a statement issued by the Frankfurt
prosecutor in the state of Hesse said.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s nuclear power industry is no closer to knowing how long its plants may operate than five months ago when Chancellor Angela Merkel’s new government assumed power and promised to extend their lives.

Rifts inside her center-right cabinet over the merit of rivaling renewables energies and a local election potentially threatening her party’s leadership of a key state have delayed steps to free the 17 reactors from closure in the coming decade.