The energy policy in Germany is mainly shaped at the federal level. There the most significant acts for the promotion of the use of renewable energy sources have been created and released. Still, the German federal states can define energy policy targets and respective measures to a certain extent; however have to comply with the overall policy framework given by the federal government. Due to these limitations at the federal state level the policy advice for the promotion of bioenergy in Germany has a focus on the national legislation since it indicates the direction and the design of the overall energy strategy.

Within the scope of the Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC) Germany has transposed the guidelines of the European Union concerning the use of biomass for energy provision into national law. Consequently, Germany has defined targets and instruments in the bioenergy policy sector. Considering the categories of policy measures - regulatory, financial and educational - for the promotion of bioenergy usage COACH BioEnergy identified that Germany makes a strong use of financial and regulatory instruments for the use of energy from biomass. In contrast, educational programmes are made little use of so far on federal level. In the past five years mainly regulatory instruments like a building standard for the promotion of biomass for heating and a quota scheme for the promotion of biomass for fuels in the transportation sector have been introduced.

By introducing more regulatory instruments in the recent years a shift towards a stronger enforcement for the achievement of an anticipated goal has been done. Therefore, COACH BioEnergy has elaborated that not necessarily the best available bioenergy technologies are implemented but rather certain ones that are defined as eligible for fulfilling the given obligation. Hence, the main focus is on the achievement of the set goal in the first place. This aspect could be seen as a drawback because it would on the one hand not support the development of the most efficient bioenergy provision and on the other hand not provide incentives for technology innovations.

Financial instruments have a less interfering impact on the market than regulations. However, at the same time their degree of enforcement is lower than compared to regulatory instruments hence the appropriate design is very crucial in order to be effective. In Germany, as in the case of the subsidy scheme “Market Incentive Programme” (MAP), stop-and-go measures in the form of budget depletion and interruptions of the programme have been observed by COACH BioEnergy. These occurrences could be deterrent for investors and bring about insecurity for further investments.

COACH BioEnergy has found that overall educational programmes as information and marketing campaigns are rather scarcely used so far. Nonetheless, they are of utmost importance to raise awareness among the consumers and investors and thus allowing them to make an informed decision when making an investment in the energy area. Here it has to be mentioned that in particular at the federal state level a few successful information campaigns already could be observed by COACH BioEnergy what should be a benchmark for the whole country.

Overall it can be summarized that for the promotion of biomass use for energy provision in Germany policy instruments are in place within all three sectors heating, electricity and transportation. COACH BioEnergy therefore would recommend modifications of the current proposed policy scheme. These modifications could include a mix of different policy measures, market based instruments such as subsidies and taxes, and the support for measures for the development of innovative technologies. Moreover, a stronger use of educational measures could raise awareness for the importance of renewable energies on different levels: starting on the civic level up to the municipality level, thereby informed decisions in the area of biomass use could be increased. Moreover, in the course of the project COACH BioEnergy found that a definition of sustainability criteria also for solid and gaseous biomass is of utmost importance for a wider use of bioenergy. Thereby social aspects of the use of biomass, which have not been taken into consideration so far, should be included as well.