FRANKFURT, March 29 (Reuters) – Trading volume in the
European wholesale power markets is unlikely to bounce back
after an estimated 12 percent contraction in 2011, a report by
research company Prospex said.

“…very few (market participants) foresee any striking
growth and a common view is that the market will simply tick
over,” said Prospex in abstracts from the report, which is due
to be published on April 2.

FRANKFURT, March 28 (Reuters) – German power curve prices in
the wholesale market may well not reflect coming capacity
closures, said Deutsche Bank Research (DBR) on Wednesday,
holding on to price scenarios drawn up after the country’s
partial exit from nuclear power last year.

“Given that we are still factoring in 14 gigawatts (GW) of
capacity withdrawals over 2012-15,…, we still expect prices to
rise by more than the forward curve is currently indicating out
to 2015,” said the bank’s research authors, Mark Lewis and
Michael Hsueh, in a note.

BERLIN, March 23 (Reuters) – E.ON, Germany’s
biggest utility, on Friday joined other heavy polluters in
urging the European Commission to stretch its carbon-cutting
policy out to 2030, to harmonise renewable energy targets and to
back the bloc’s energy industry in global competition.

“I propose to expand the view to 2030 and to provide for the
adjustment of available CO2 emissions rights certificates,”
E.ON’s chief executive Johannes Teyssen told reporters in
Berlin.

BERLIN, March 21 (Reuters) – Planned cuts to German solar
power support fees will not tackle the problem of excessive
subsidies and quotas may be a good way forward, the head of
Germany’s cartel office said on Wednesday.

The German government has decided to slash tariffs by 37
percent from April 1 but the move, already delayed from a
previously envisaged March 9 timeline, has proven controversial
even within the ruling centre-right coalition.

PARIS/BERLIN (Reuters) – France and Germany oppose an emergency release of oil stockpiles, which they believe should be used to offset supply disruptions rather than tame oil prices, officials from both countries said on Tuesday.

Sources told Reuters last week that Britain has decided to cooperate with the United States in a bilateral agreement to release stocks, in an effort to prevent high fuel prices derailing economic growth.

PRENZLAU, Germany, March 12 (Reuters) – Germany’s
solution to a large part of its energy dilemma may lie in a
muddy field in desolate, windswept flatlands in the northeast.

In an area 75 miles north of Berlin that until now has
attracted more birdwatchers than cutting-edge industries,
start-up Enertrag AG, with the help of partners Vattenfall
, Total and Deutsche Bahn, is operating one
of the first plants to generate wind power and convert it into
hydrogen.

ESSEN, Germany, March 6 (Reuters) – The trading arm of
German utility RWE warned investors to expect 2012
losses on gas trading to significantly exceed last year’s 800
million euro hit, due to the rising cost of long-term gas
supplies from Russia and Norway.

The company expects earnings from its trading and midstream
business to be “significantly below last year” due to the
divergence in gas and crude oil price movements.

BERLIN, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Having signalled that
Germany is getting out of nuclear, the government needs to map
out further steps to make the switch work, energy executives
said on Thursday.

“The energy shift is a political decision without a
technical concept behind it,” said Stephan Reimelt, chief
executive of GE Energy Germany. “I am very worried about time
running out.”

BERLIN, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Progress in Germany’s
energy shift away from nuclear power is painfully slow, hampered
by what energy sector executives say are inadequate incentives
and a lack of strong investors, suggesting it will be Herculean
task.

Germany, prompted by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami
last year that caused a disaster at Japan’s Fukushima plant,
decided to abandon nuclear power by 2022, leaving a large energy
gap to fill.

FRANKFURT, Jan 10 (Reuters) – The European Energy
Exchange plans for further growth in its gas trading contracts
in 2012 after expansion in 2011, its chief executive, Peter
Reitz, told reporters in Frankfurt.

“We have not yet realised all opportunities in gas. The
measures we have undertaken will serve to attract yet more
liquidity to the EEX,” he said, without giving targets or
precise numbers.