Germany has the most expensive electricity in Europe
Last year, households that consumed 1,200 kilowatt hours paid 34.30 cents per kilowatt hour, up from 33.49 cents in 2019.
Berlin-For the second year in a row, consumers in Germany paid the most for electricity Europe-wide.
Germany took over the lead from Denmark in 2019, but prices rose further in 2020, according to the figures from the Federal Statistics Office, which were made available to the Funke Mediengruppe on Monday following a request by the Die Linke parliamentary group in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament.
According to the data, small households using 1,200 kilowatt hours power paid 34.30 cents per kilowatt hour last year, up from 33.49 cents in 2019. Prices also increased for larger households with an annual consumption of 3,500 kilowatt hours. They paid an average of 30.43 cents per kilowatt hour, up from 29.83 cents the previous year.
Average power costs down in the EU
According to Germany's statistics office, average electricity prices in Europe fell last year. In the euro zone they were down by 0.53 cents to 22.47 cents per kilowatt hour. In the 27 EU countries cost of a kilowatt hour fell by by 0.51 cents to 21.26 cents.
"Germany is the European champion when it comes to electricity prices. They're unacceptably high and must fall significantly," Dietmar Bartsch, leader of Die Linke in the Bundestag, told the Funke newspaper group.
The electricity tax must be abolished for private households and the EEG renewable energy levy fundamentally reformed, he demanded. "Electricity and energy must not become a luxury good."
