Agora Energiewende has outlined in October 2013 a radical two-step plan for improving how Germany handles renewables. The first step radically simplifies the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) in 2014, while the second step involves transparently redesigning the market for renewable and conventional energy by 2017. This "EEG 2.0" would on the one hand stabilize the renewables surcharge roughly at the level for 2014, around 6 to 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. On the other hand it would encourage the further expansion of renewable energy in line with reaching a share of 40% renewables by 2020. To this end, Agora Energiewende has put forward a concept of 12 core elements that would reduce the costs of renewable energies, improve the market integration of renewables and reduce the exemptions from paying the renewables surcharge.
