
Europe 1997–2004 587
I said: “Take the 5-year term of your feed-in tariff, and make it
a 20-year commitment, and then stand back because the flood of
capital will amaze you.” Hermann asked why is this, and I explained
that lenders have a thumb rule that they will make loans for a term
equal to no more that 75% of the term of the “assured revenues”
of a project. So, the 5-year FIT will attract 3-year loans. If we want
15-year loans, as we had just been saying in the conference that day,
then there must be assured revenue for 20-years.
Hermann Scheer went to the Bundestag the next day, introduced
an amendment to change the rule from 5-years to 20-years,