As I read those articles about the Germany’s energy policy, I found out that renewable energy technologies have deployed rapidly in Germany since 1990 largely as a result of energy policies adopted by the German government and the European Union, and Germany is the only large economy that is taking the threat of climate change seriously, and also at the June of 2013, the Germany Chancellor announced that her aim to curb the renewable energy subsides, so that it can afford to upgrade the power grid and lower the pressure on the rising electricity prices.
I found in the article, the statistics shows that Germany’s renewable energy sector is among the most innovative and successful worldwide. The share of electricity produced from renewable energy in Germany has increased from 6.3 percent of the national total in 2000 to about 25 percent in the first half of 2012, mainly due to the robust renewable energy industry. Also the German government wants 80 percent of its energy to be produced by renewable sources by 2050; biomass, wind, and solar currently make up about 25 percent of the country’s electricity supply. The country has begun to take fossil fuel power stations offline and is planning to phase out nuclear energy by 2022.
Renewable energy policy in Germany over the past decade were successful, between 1990 and 2003, renewable energy’s share in Germany’s electric power generation fuel mix grew from less than 3% to almost 9%. Over the same period, net electricity consumption in Germany grew by approximately 5%, while carbon dioxide emissions from electric power production declined by roughly 13%. As a result of these policy pressures has facilitated the rapid growth of renewable generated electricity in Germany. Moreover, this growth has created new domestic industries that now employ more than 120,000 people directly and indirectly and has offset increasing amounts of greenhouse gases and other air emissions each year.
References
Giannoulis, Karafillis “German renewable energy policy will change” June 12, 2013
“Germany’s Energy Policy: Man-Made Crisis Now Costing Billions” October 30, 2012
“Germany: A Model for Renewable Energy Policy ” December 12, 2012
Wikipedia “Renewable energy in Germany”
Energy Grids are usually considered as the national engine of an economy. In countries like USA, it appears among the economic lifeline factors, which ensure high level of reliability in terms of electricity supply. Considering the past experiences of five massive blackouts in last 40 years, of which three occurred in last nine years, it became necessary to develop the reliable energy grid and electricity transmission system.
Not only like USA, in Asia they need to think more about how to deal with the pollutions and how to use the renewable energy. According to the article you wrote, “renewable energy’s share in Germany’s electric power generation fuel mix grew from less than 3% to almost 9%. Over the same period, net electricity consumption in Germany grew by approximately 5%, while carbon dioxide emissions from electric power production declined by roughly 13%.” this is really something. And i believe if the country like china or taiwan can focus more on renewable energy, they can have a better environment for living.