Thousands march as political cracks appear in German FIT plan

Recharge
Backed by Germany’s largest trade union, thousands of people marched to Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate today in protest at impending cuts to the country’s solar feed-in tariff (FIT). The protest highlights the political resonance of the issue and comes amid a growing schism within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government. The Bavaria-based Christian Social Union (CSU) – the sister party to Merkel’s own Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – is breaking away from a plan that would impose a new round of FIT cuts from 9 March.
Sunny Bavaria has reaped huge economic benefits from Germany’s generous solar support. In particular, CSU parliamentarians oppose the swiftness with which the FIT cuts would be imposed – they were only announced in late February – as well as a measure that would see all support eradicated for arrays larger than 10MW.