MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Bavaria state premier Horst Seehofer said on Friday that the German government"s plans to cut state-mandated solar power incentives are excessive.
Seehofer"s Christian Social Union (CSU) is the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel"s Christian Democrats -- and one of three parties in her center-right coalition.
"The plans presented by the government"s cabinet on solar power incentives will have an unacceptable impact on Bavaria," Seehofer said in a statement.
"The cuts the government wants are too high, go in the wrong direction and will needlessly cut the innovation potential."
Merkel"s cabinet agreed last week to a proposal to cut state-mandated incentives in July.
The government wants to cut the incentives for rooftop solar power by 16 percent from July 1 and eliminate support for converted farmland. The cuts in the "feed-in tariff" will also include a 15 percent cut for non-agricultural fields.
After passing the cabinet, the measure will head to the Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, where Merkel"s center-right coalition has a majority. But it is unclear what would happen if Seehofer"s CSU refuses to back the measure.
So-called feed-in tariffs -- prices utilities are obliged to pay to generators of renewable energy -- are the sector"s lifeline as long as grid-parity, the point at which renewables cost the same as fossil fuel-based power, has not been reached.
(Reporting by Jens Hack; writing by Erik Kirschbaum)
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