Germany's renewable energy support scheme is set to cost the federal budget far less than planned this year, but for an uncomfortable reason. The German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE) expects the EEG account, which pays support to renewable power plants, to need €4.2 billion less in federal funds in 2026 than budgeted, because high gas-driven power prices are lifting market revenues for wind and solar.
Budget relief in numbers
According to media reports, the Federal Finance Ministry set aside €16.6 billion for the EEG account this year. The transmission system operators now estimate the federal requirement for 2026 at €12.4 billion, Handelsblatt reported, which is €4.2 billion less than planned.
After three quarters, federal payments to the transmission system operators totalled almost €12.6 billion, and the account showed a surplus of about €2.25 billion at the end of September. In 2025, about €16.5 billion of federal money flowed into the scheme, according to the operators' data on netztransparenz.de.
"The EEG account is expected to be burdened by €4.2 billion less in 2026," BEE President Ursula Heinen-Esser said in a statement in German, calling it good news for the federal budget.
Why the bill is falling
The BEE gives two reasons. Older plants with high feed-in tariffs are gradually leaving the scheme, which has long been expected. The much stronger effect this year comes from electricity prices. Under the EEG, operators receive the difference between their guaranteed support and their market revenues, so when wholesale prices rise, the subsidy needed falls.
Prices have risen sharply. Energy-Charts data from Fraunhofer ISE shows an average exchange price of €165.45/MWh in October 2026, against €82.39/MWh in October 2025. In the first six days of November, the average reached €258.86/MWh, compared with €103.17/MWh in November 2025.
The BEE attributes the increase to the high share of gas in the power mix, with gas-fired plants currently among the most expensive forms of generation in Germany.
What the industry wants
Heinen-Esser said the fossil price crisis "is not a temporary crisis" and will flare up again with every new geopolitical conflict. The BEE argues that only a growing share of renewables in the grid, together with more storage, can keep EEG costs and electricity prices low.
The association wants lawmakers to make investment reliably plannable, reduce financing costs and use digitalisation to make better use of existing generation and grid capacity. It also proposes using the savings to cut the electricity tax for private households.
What it means for European developers
The German numbers show how strongly renewable support costs depend on gas prices. When power prices are high, subsidy schemes cost governments less and merchant revenues for solar rise, but consumers pay more. For developers across Europe, the episode strengthens the political case for faster solar and storage deployment as a hedge against fossil price shocks, and it gives Germany room in its budget as it prepares its next EEG reform.
Source: pv magazine Deutschland, citing BEE, Handelsblatt, netztransparenz.de and Fraunhofer ISE Energy-Charts.
