Photo DPAPower companies in Germany stand to gain billions in refunds from the government after the country's top court declared Wednesday that a nuclear fuel tax was illegal. Germany's Constitutional Court ruled that the nuclear fuel tax imposed from 2011-16 was unconstitutional and scrapped it retrospectively. E.ON said the tax had cost it over €2.8 billion, a sum it wants refunded plus €450 million interest. Germany, under its energy transition programme, aims to switch from largely nuclear power and carbon-based energy to clean renewables such as wind, solar, biomass and hydropower this century. Big power companies such as EON, RWE and Vattenfall of Sweden have taken a beating amid a glut of green electricity that has driven down wholesale prices.

Source: The Local June 07, 2017 15:20 UTC