As Table 2 shows, the EEG also increased the rates utilities pay to renewable energy producers, in most cases by 10%—but by as much as 500% in the case of solar photovoltaic power. The Renewable Energy Supply Act subsidized most renewable energy sources and obligated utilities to buy power from renewable producers, but succeeded mainly in promoting wind; while solar PV and solar thermal energy deployment has also grown significantly, solar technologies continue to have difficulty competing with fossil fuels and other renewables—even at the highly-subsidized rates shown in Table 2 (below).19 Hence, while the deployment policies have resulted in a dramatic expansion in the deployment of renewables in general, they have had asymmetric impacts, promoting those technologies that are currently most economically competitive. The fact that Germany’s deployment policies favor those renewable energy technologies that are most commercially viable suggests that the German government places high value on technology deployment for near-term emissions reductions.