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.

It follows investigations in Britain, France, Spain, Norway and the Netherlands into carbon credit fraud over the last year.

“Increased cases of tax fraud with regard to the trade of greenhouse gases emissions rights since the spring of 2009 are the subject of the investigation,” the statement said. Total damage was around 180 million euros ($239.7 million).

The office said it was coordinating the nationwide investigation with federal offices, police and tax offices in several states. Around 50 companies and 150 suspects were being targeted, it said.

Deutsche Bank AG <DBKGn.DE> had received a visit and was cooperating with authorities, a spokesman for the bank said. Carbon permits are issued to industries under the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme, forcing them to limit their emissions output.

Italian bank UniCredit SpA said the investigation was not directed against the bank, but some of its customers had been affected. [ID:LDE63R2HK]

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.

But analysts say having expected and priced in closures for as long as the 10-year old exit deal, the industry must keep its nerve and focus on the benefits from any leeway given.

“Operators will be fairly pragmatic about the affair, realizing that the lack of progress on politicians’ part makes the case for generous life extensions that much stronger for them,” said Lawrence Pooole of IHS Global Insight.

“Under such a scenario, operators could however find themselves paying a heftier share of revenue to the government for the additional generation these facilities will provide,” he said, adding there could also be tough maintenance conditions.

Even if operators must upgrade plants and share additional profits, they may still stand to earn billions of euros a year if largely written off plants produce longer than envisioned in the exit deal that wants plants to stop after an average 32 years of age.

That is why anti-nuclear groups such as “Ausgestrahlt,” which means “enough radiation,” vow to stage powerful protests.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Time will soon run out for Germany to build up enough power generation if politicians continue dragging their feet on decisions over the fuel mix, German state energy agency Dena said on Monday.

As the quarrelling central coalition government remains fixated on a state-level election in May, it has delayed a raft of measures for the sector until a wider, long-term energy plan arrives in the autumn, which experts say loses valuable time.

“My plea to politicians would be to decide quickly. Otherwise, we will not have investments in time,” Dena managing director Stephan Kohler told Reuters.

“Power markets will feel insecure,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of a Focus magazine conference on power plants.

“There will be no new jobs and the power supply security of the coming years will be impaired.”

Dena forecasts that Germany may be short some 14,000 to 16,000 megawatt of generation capacity if nuclear laws phase out reactors by 2021 as now planned and new projects for coal or gas plants fail to materialize due to public opposition.

Germany, which has around 80,000 MW of total installed capacity, expects power demand to hold stable at around 500 terawatt hours a year, as energy savings are offset by more new gadgets.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Agricultural products and building materials trader Baywa expects a recovery in raw materials prices this year, and plans more acquisitions to boost its renewable energy business.

Chief executive Klaus Josef Lutz also told Reuters Insider TV in an interview he was unperturbed by pending cuts in solar industry subsidies in Germany on which some of his new acquisitions rely, as the cuts had been anticipated.

“We don’t see a significant cut by the discussions we have now in Germany to reduce the subsidies especially for the solar plants,” said Lutz. “There is no reason to change our green energy strategy.”

Lutz said he expected 2010 profits should match last year’s.

Baywa, which trades materials and equipment, such as fertilizers, seeds and construction components, will report its 2009 financial results on March 31. The company has been listed in the mid-cap M-Dax since last September.

In 2008 Baywa posted a profit from ordinary activities at 103.5 million euros ($141.4 million) on 8.8 billion euros sales.

Last year Baywa made three acquisitions — renewable energy project firm Renerco, photovoltaics company MHH Solartechnic and Aufwind Neue Energien, a project firm for biogas plants.

FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) – Online fraudsters have targeted international carbon markets to steal emissions permits from companies and sell them illegally, officials said on Wednesday.

Account holders at emissions registries were hit by a “phishing” scam last week when emails were sent to market participants requesting their details, an official at German registry DEHSt said on Wednesday, clarifying a media report.

“It was not a hacker attack but a phishing action at firms participating in emissions trading,” said Hans-Juergen Nantke, the head of DEHSt.

Phishing commonly refers to hoax e-mails purportedly from trusted organisations to trick recipients into revealing information such as bank account numbers and passwords.

In the $135 billion global carbon market, which includes the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme, companies can buy permits from others to emit greenhouse gases when cutting those emissions is too expensive.

“It was a world-wide action,” Nantke said, adding that, to his knowledge, not just the 27-member EU but also New Zealand, Norway and Australia were affected.

The United Nations’ Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat said it is aware of nine fradulent transactions but the software of national registries operated by Kyoto Protocol members do not appear to have been compromised.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) last year fell by just under 9 percent to their lowest level since 1990, an expert said on Thursday, citing declines in industrial activity due to the economic crisis.

Europe’s biggest economy cut man-made CO2 emissions, which contribute to global warming, to 760 million tons in 2009, down 74 million from 2008, the biggest year-on-year fall since 1991, said Hans-Joachim Ziesing, who compiles the data annually.

“This is on the basis of energy usage and macroeconomic data and barring anything major in December…I have a good feeling about this calculation,” he said.

“It reflects the decline in economic activity rather than weather, inventory or policy factors and in my opinion shows there must not be any let-up in climate efforts,” he said.

The figures are relevant as official emissions data from state environment agency UBA and the CO2 emissions registry DEHSt will only be made available in three months’ time.

There are no private sector estimates going and the official statistics have to be blessed by the environment ministry.

Ziesing developed a methodology as former head of energy at the DIW research institute and maintains positions as climate advisor to the federal and the Berlin city governments.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Millions of Germans will pay more for their electricity despite sharply lower fuel prices, footing the bill for utilities’ losses, renewable energy and higher transmission grid charges.

Market competition is not, therefore, working as well as it should, its critics conclude.

A number of big firms have announced prices hikes, meaning many of the 40 million households in Europe’s biggest economy will not benefit from discounted wholesale power — despite cheaper oil and weak demand.

“Wholesale prices have been falling significantly for the past 14 months, you would expect this to result in lower prices for retail customers at some stage,” said Thorsten Kasper, energy specialist at the Federation of German Consumer Organizations, VZBV in Berlin.

“If competition was fully functioning, it should not take that long for lower prices to arrive, but they haven’t.”

Some 40 firms, including big players Vattenfall Europe and EWE will hike retail power prices by at least 5 percent from January, although others such as E.ON and RWE will hold theirs steady.

But retail prices across the country had already risen by 7 percent in the year to date.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany faces higher electricity prices and power supply shortfalls if the economic downturn prevents enough new power plants being built.

Power generators looking to expand must also grapple with public opposition to coal over its carbon emissions, and delays to a defined future for nuclear energy’s as the new government starts to work out its energy policy.

The problem has been put off in the short term as big companies like E.ON and RWE are not eager to spend money in the face of slumping demand. Industrial consumer purchases of power in the year to September slumped by seven percent in Europe’s biggest economy.

But as signs of a German recovery appear, so too are projections for rising power demand and fears there could be supply gaps and crippling prices, if the slowdown in investments is not halted.

“We could easily risk running into power capacity bottlenecks in the coming years when the economy recovers and electricity demand rises again,” said Florian Haslauer of the A.T. Kearney consultancy.

“This is because projects are being delayed as cash flows ease when consumption and prices sink, and as credit conditions are unfavorable.”

“Then maybe five years down the line those years without investment we see now will be missing and cannot be repeated,” Haslauer said.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s nuclear power policy of keeping old reactors open longer to bridge the gap to greener energy may also leave the door open to eventually break a major electoral taboo — new atomic power plants.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s new center-right government last week kept nuclear energy alive but stressed that would only be until renewable energies are fully viable. Popular opposition to nuclear is strong and visceral.

A total of 17 reactors had faced closure in the coming decade but can now expect a new lease of life.

Analysts think this leaves room for opinions to change.

“There is an attempt in Germany to establish a policy comfort zone,” said Lawrence Poole of IHS Global Insight.

“Once they have that in place and safe and well maintained nuclear plants continue to supply power, it makes it that much easier to progress the overall debate,” he said, adding, “Whether that means new plants is another question.”

Merkel’s political opponents have been less circumspect in raising their own suspicions.