100% Renewable Energy in Germany

[nhboy (Premo)]

Link to original article.

"There is no debate on climate change in Germany. The temperature for the past 10 months has been 3 degrees above average and we’re again on course for the warmest year on record. There’s no dispute among Germans as to whether this change is man-made, or that we contribute to it and need to stop accelerating the process.

Since 2000, Germany has converted 25 percent of its power grid to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass. The architects of the clean energy movement Energiewende, which translates to “energy transformation,” estimate that from 80 percent to 100 percent of Germany’s electricity will come from renewable sources by 2050.

Germans are baffled that the United States has not taken the same path. Not only is the U.S. the wealthiest nation in the world, but it’s also credited with jump-starting Germany’s green movement 40 years ago.

“This is a very American idea,” Arne Jungjohann, a director at the Heinrich Boll Stiftung Foundation (HBSF), said at a news conference Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C. “We got this from Jimmy Carter.”

Germany adopted and continued Carter’s push for energy conservation while the U.S. abandoned further efforts. The death of an American Energiewende solidified when President Ronald Reagan ripped down the solar panels atop the White House that Carter had installed.

Since then, Germany has created strong incentives for the public to invest in renewable energy. It pays people to generate electricity from solar panels on their houses. The effort to turn more consumers into producers is accelerated through feed-in tariffs, which are 20-year contracts that ensure a fixed price the government will pay. Germany lowers the price every year, so there’s good reason to sign one as soon as possible, before compensation falls further.

The money the government uses to pay producers comes from a monthly surcharge on utility bills that everyone pays, similar to a rebate. Customers pay an additional cost for the renewable energy fund and then get that money back from the government, at a profit, if they are producing their own energy.

In the end, ratepayers control the program, not the government. This adds consistency, writer Osha Gray Davidson says. If the government itself paid, it would be easy for a new finance minister to cut the program upon taking office. Funding is not at the whim of politicians as it is in the U.S."

[Gilligan (Premo)]

Why does the globe hate Germany so much..since the global average temperature has not risen in 16 years...and counting?

[Radiant1]

Originally Posted by Gilligan

Why does the globe hate Germany so much..since the global average temperature has not risen in 16 years...and counting?

Who cares. Good on Germany for implementing renewable energy sources!

[aps45819]

Originally Posted by Radiant1

Who cares. Good on Germany for implementing renewable energy sources!

Why?

Will it make ANY difference to the climate?

[Radiant1]

Originally Posted by aps45819

Why?

Will it make ANY difference to the climate?

Maybe, maybe not, but it will lessen the depletion of other natural resources and/or dependence on foreign oil.

[CrashTest]

Perhaps Germany should focus more on their economic climate.

German economy slows, heads for Q4 contraction | Reuters

[Gilligan (Premo)]

Originally Posted by Radiant1

Maybe, maybe not, but it will lessen the depletion of other natural resources and/or dependence on foreign oil.

You mean like all the positive effects of that variety that we've experienced by making ethanol from corn?

Oh...wait....no, that wouldn't be a good example, would it.

[itsbob]

Originally Posted by Radiant1

Who cares. Good on Germany for implementing renewable energy sources!

Now for the rest of the story..

Their renewable energy solutions do NOT provide enough power for their own country.. They have to now (since they've shut down all of their Nuke Plants) go across borders and BUY energy (EXPENSIVE) from other countries that still have nuke and fossil fuel plants.

They've shot themselves in the foot and spin it as a good thing.

[itsbob]

So Germany didn't fix the problem, nor did they decrease their carbon footprint but in fact made it MUCH worse when they closed their Nuke plants..

They just moved the "greenhouse gasses" to somebody else's backyard, but still release them into the same atmosphere..

So what is it exactly that they have accomplished??

Higher energy prices for their citizens... that's what.

Oh wait. They're led by a bunch of Liberal loons too so I guess this is a GREAT solution.

[glhs837]

Yep, once you dig past the rahrah of the green crowd, the problems become evident. Germany went from exporting %6 of it's nuke power to importing %2, although they are careful to say in public none of the imported power comes from nukes. And the massive subsidies that are driving the explosive growth of these renewable sources cant be sustained, or it will effect the German economy even more than the rise in electrical energy prices caused the fact that the renewable providers are guaranteed that they will be paid a rate higher than the utilities reselling it could produce it for themselves, requiring them to raise rates.

And the last piece of the puzzle is that the infrastructure required to tie all these new windwill and solar plants into the grid cant be built as fast as the plants, meaning the German government is paying subsidies to companies not even delivering power.

Yep, that's a model worth following. For the last time, if it was feasible to make money doing it, it wouldn't require subsidies. Like ethanol.