Energy Newsletter

European gas prices have risen from ~28 €/MWh in January to ~74 €/MWh in October 2026 – an increase of 160% in nine months. Germany is facing the highest electricity prices in Europe (0.362 €/kWh) as winter approaches. The price explosion poses massive risks to industry and consumers, forcing the EU to take emergency measures.

The four German transmission system operators (50Hertz, Amprion, TenneT, TransnetBW) announce an increase in grid fees of over 20% for 2027 – without federal subsidy, the value would rise to 6.52 ct/kWh. The cause is massive investments in grid expansion for the energy transition; so far only 17% of the planned 16,776 km of transmission lines have been completed. The debt burden of the TSOs amounts to ~50 billion €, which jeopardizes the financing of the transformation.

Vattenfall and Fluence are building a 1-GWh battery storage facility at the former Brunsbüttel nuclear power plant with 254 MW capacity and 4-hour discharge capability – one of Germany's largest energy storage projects. The project demonstrates the technology shift from nuclear power to storage and addresses the central problem of volatile renewables. This investment is a key project for grid stability and gives energy suppliers like RWE (Fluence investor) a competitive advantage.

Green electricity supplier Grüün ceases operations after only two years of supply, leaving 200,000 customers without a power provider – evidence of economic unprofitability of energy transition models. At the same time, the energy transition is causing exploding costs for grid expansion, storage, hydrogen, and redispatch measures instead of cost reductions. Federal subsidies of planned 30 billion € for renewables had already been exceeded by 6 billion € by the end of September.

Federal Economy Minister Katharina Reiche (former top manager at E.ON) promotes redispatch regulations that allegedly benefit E.ON – while RWE, EnBW, Vattenfall, and Uniper jointly reject these plans. Greens, Left party, and even the CDU criticize Reiche as a "security risk for Germany"; only E.ON supports the new energy policy. The scandal reveals conflicts of interest in energy policy and damages the credibility of the energy transition.