Kayla Shepard
February 7, 2013
Renewable energy is a vital source amongst our world in this generation, due to man made mistakes the earth is slowly being destroyed year by year. It is shown in recent studies that renewable energy is low on the scale of usage; companies need to find a way to expand this handling and ultimately save our home. A few renewable sources are: sunlight (as solar powering), wind, rain, heat, ect. By using these sources we can cut down on major damages that are being inflicted on the earth, one problem in particular being global warming.
As many countries are vigorously working on how to spread sustainable energy to factories, homes, and transportation it seems Germany is stepping to the plate. From a positive outlook Germany is saving the world one piece at a time by depleting their nuclear power usage and changing over to renewable energy, unfortunately everything comes with a price, a high one at that. IER, (Institute for Energy Research) discussed this disastrous problem,
“Consumers in Germany are facing the biggest electricity price increase in a decade and those price increases will continue. It is estimated that by 2030, Germany will have spent more than 300 billion Euros on green electricity. And consumer groups are complaining that about 800,000 German households can no longer pay for their energy bills” (IER).
It is said Germany’s ultimate goal is to have more than half of their electrical power to be run on renewable energies by 2050, but residents of Germany are starting to struggle with this phase, hardly being able to pay their electric bills in this year.
With this phase out of nuclear power into renewable energy Germany thought itself to be a hero amongst the world though what they didn’t realize was by doing such a rapid change they were inflicting their financial problems onto surrounding territories,
“For example, Germany’s ‘eco-miracle’ simply used the power grids of neighboring countries not only without asking for permission but also without paying for it. Now Poland and the Czech Republic have pulled the plug and are building a huge switch-off at their borders to block the uninvited import of green energy from Germany which is destabilizing their grids and is thus risking blackouts” (The Global Warming Policy Foundation).
Though Germany was trying help this planet we reside on the government did not plan out the action well enough, by blind-siding their neighboring countries they are isolating themselves from any future help and are now becoming a lonely island sinking in its own financial problems.
Along with sky rocketing prices for electric bills the cost of building all new renewable factories is beginning to rack up a hefty price, this also creates another crisis of black outs becoming more of an occurrence. It seems the people of Germany are starting to panic and question the “development” their government is trying to produce, stated in a German magazine Spiegal they report their concerns on Germany’s future, Adam Peshek of Reason Foundation says,
“The energy supply is now ‘the top risk for Germany as a location for business,’ says Hans Heinrich Driftmann, president of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK). ‘One has to be concerned in Germany about the cost of electricity,’ warns European Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger. And Bernd Kalwa, a member of the general works council at ThyssenKrupp, says heatedly: ‘Some 5,000 jobs are in jeopardy within our company alone, because an irresponsible energy policy is being pursued in Düsseldorf and Berlin” (Reason Foundation).
It’s a sad fact when a countries attempt to help the world ends in destruction to their own land, the world needs to find a way to come together and slowly but effectively help this energy crisis.
IER. “Germany’s Energy Policy: Man Made Crisis Now Costing Billions.” Institue
for Energy Research. N.p., 30 Oct. 2012. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. <http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2012/10/30/germanys-energy-policy-man-made-crisis-now-costing-billions/>.
Peshek, Adam. “Germany’s Green Energy Policies Are Shutting Down
Industry.” Reason Foundation. N.p., 29 Feb. 2012. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. <http://reason.org/blog/show/germanys-green-subsidies-shutting-d>.
Wetzel, Daniel. “Poland And Czech Republic Ban Germany’s Green
Energy.” GWPF. N.p., 29 Dec. 2012. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. <http://www.thegwpf.org/poland-czech-republic-ban-germanys-green-energy/>.