There has been much news over Germanys Green Energy Policy over the past several years about how it is going to change its entire energy infrastructure to promote renewable energy sources? However it has not turned out quite like that. Over the past year Germany has mined significant amounts of coal in which consumption jumped 8 percent in the first half of 2013. Last year Germans produced more CO2 emissions than they have in previous years. This was not how the green energy policy was suppose to work.
Germany Green Energy Policy sounds great but of course it has its downfalls. For society as a whole, the costs have reached levels comparable only to the euro-zone bailouts. This year,” German consumers will be forced to pay 26 billions dollars for electricity from solar, wind and biogas plants, electricity has a market price of just over 3 euros . Electricity is becoming so expensive in Germany that many citizens can’t afford it anymore. Whats even worse, after spending billions of Euros on subsidies, Germany’s total combined solar facilities have contributed only 0.084% of Germany’s electricity over the last 22 years. “.http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/high-costs-and-errors-of-german-transition-to-renewable-energy-a-920288.html
Why is it failing?
Renewable energy such as solar panel and wind turbines have the ability to generate massive amounts of electricity. But what happens at night when there is no sun, or when there is no wind? Because of this the country might either have a surplus of energy or a deficit. “Generating energy with wind involves extreme fluctuations because it depends on the weather and includes periods without any recognizable capacity for days, or suddenly occurring supply peaks that push the grid to its limits,” a 2012 report from Germany energy expert Dr. Guenter Keil notes. When there is a shortage of energy the coal plants are fired up on overdrive producing more emissions than they were to begin with.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/03/14/germanys-green-energy-disaster-a-cautionary-tale-for-world-leaders/
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/high-costs-and-errors-of-german-transition-to-renewable-energy-a-920288.html
I liked how you jumped right into the focal point of the issue at hand. Also, displaying the rising problems as Germany’s energy crisis is affecting the average consumer was neat to see. It’s difficult to imagine living in a country and having to pay $26 billion to fund the energy projects—it seems that the government is having the consumers shoulder the weight of the energy crisis in Germany. Lastly, I found it interesting to see that after all that, Germany is still relying upon coal production for Energy. Good Work!-Connor
I think its unbelievable how Germany was trying to make an environmental movement but then decided to take a completely opposite approach and use a lot of coal. I liked the facts that you presented throughout the blog and how they are very relevant to Germany’s energy problem. Furthermore, I liked how you showed why the actual policy was failing. Good job!