Is it permissible for a Federal Minister to represent the private interests of a corporation? This accusation is being raised by representatives from the renewable energy sector against Economy Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU). “Birnbaum demands, Reiche delivers,” explains Johannes Lackmann, a wind power pioneer and who, until 2008, served nine years as president of the Federal Association for Renewable Energy (BEE), referring to Leonhard Birnbaum, the head of Eon, one of Europe’s most powerful energy companies.
In the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Eon chief had called at the end of 2025 to organize the expansion of wind and solar power “along the actual need and in the right place.” Now the draft of the new “Renewable Energy Act” from Reiche’s department has become public, and it reads entirely in the spirit of the Eon chief: Solar installations up to 25 kilowatts capacity should no longer receive a fixed feed-in tariff. Moreover, such installations should be barred from feeding electricity into the grid at all.
“If the bill is implemented as proposed, the expansion of photovoltaics ‘at the right place’ will come to a standstill, in line with Eon’s ‘actual need,’” Lackmann told the . The Ministry of Economic Affairs rejected the accusation “decisively.” “Clear rules to avoid conflicts of interest and to comply with the applicable compliance guidelines apply within the government. These will of course be observed,” wrote a spokesperson for .
It concerns the small rooftop systems typically installed by private individuals for their homes: the majority of the currently 5.7 million photovoltaic systems in Germany are such, and they were a major driver of technological development. With this “wild growth” the draft now aims to put an end to it: “To strengthen the cost efficiency of expanding solar energy, the focus will in the future be more on low-cost ground-mounted installations,” it says there. Ground-mounted installations are usually built by investors; Eon has entered this business and is currently constructing, for example in Giengen an der Brenz, Baden-Württemberg, a solar park with 11 megawatts of capacity.
Solar installations up to 25 kilowatts capacity should no longer receive a fixed feed-in tariff
“Like One Egg to the Other”
Lackmann is not the only one who raises such accusations against Reiche. “Eon has presented a draft for the grid expansion for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern; Reiche’s ‘grid package’ is identical to it, like egg to egg,” said an expert familiar with the topic to the . The mid-February leaked draft for the grid expansion foresees, among other things, that renewables would no longer receive any connection guarantee wherever 3 percent of produced electricity must be curtailed. This is the case when too much solar or wind power is pushed into the grid. This becomes visible even to laypeople when some wind turbines stand still while others rotate.
However: Under energy industry law, grid operators would have to invest in the expansion only from this 3-percent threshold onward. If this rule came into force, it would practically be impossible to guarantee anywhere in Germany that a planned wind turbine could feed the electricity it produces into the grid.
Lackmann addressed Eon chief Birnbaum in an open letter: “If you have successfully placed your former employee as Economy Minister, it obviously becomes easy to put forward shameless demands.” Reiche was, until her return to politics, five years a manager at Eon’s subsidiary Westenergie. “The grids have a service function – they must follow the needs of people and the economy, not the other way around,” Lackmann wrote. For years, Eon had delayed grid expansion.
Rather than taking responsibility for this, Birnbaum now appears to be shifting the blame onto operators of wind and solar power plants. According to the Greens’ energy politician Michael Kellner, there have been nine meetings since her taking office between Reiche and Leonhard Birbaum as well as other Eon representatives and representatives of the Federal Ministry of Economics.
Old Employers, New Drafts
“Katherina Reiche is not the right person to shape the energy transition. She would rather serve her old employers,” judges Sven Giegold. However, the Greens’ deputy chair suspects a strategic chess move behind the leaks from the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs: “The draft is a brake law.”
Of course, during the parliamentary process the worst points of the draft could be softened. “If Germany wants to achieve its goal — 80 percent renewables by 2030 — we need an acceleration law,” said Giegold, who was a state secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs in the traffic-light coalition. His demand: “We must not fall for Katherina Reiche!”
