If you spend more than a day in Germany, chances are you will encounter some small faction of proof of their sustainable efforts. It may be as simple as a motion-sensored escalator, so you have to pay attention. As far as the large-scale efforts, those are easy to spot. One train ride from any two cities in Germany, you will pass a great deal of country side. You will pass small towns in the middle of no where or small towns in between mountain ranges. Although the geographical location may be slightly inconvenient, from the perspective of Americans, it does not stop these small towns from implementing huge sustainable efforts. Twenty-two percent of Germany's power is generated with renewables, which beats the US by about ten percent.
In the early 1990's, German politicians from all across the political spectrum joined together to pass a renewable energy law called the Erneurbare Energien Gesetz, or EEG. It was among the first of its kind, so it was hushed by the politicians initially, but later was embraced by the citizens. With the reunification of Berlin in 1991, there was a golden opportunity to earn revenue from the development of the eastern side. Before the 90's, it was very unlikely that solar power would develop into anything by itself. Photovoltaic panels were expensive and the technology was not developed enough to be considered a solid investment. Producing energy from the sun costs up to 10 times more than producing energy from coal or nuclear power. This is why the German government decided to pass the bill. They knew the world needed to head in the direction of renewable energy, but it would never get anywhere in the market being as costly as it was. The decision to pass the EEG is truly the reason that Germany is one of the most sustainable countries in the world today- because they invested their faith in renewables before any other country did. Today, that decision is paying off.
The EEG bill was created to encourage economies of scale and lower the cost of becoming energy efficient. It sparked a huge effort amongst the German people toward becoming a renewable society. The three main points of the bill are investment protection, no public taxes on the bill, and innovative feed-in tariffs. A "feed-in tariff" is a policy mechanism that encourages investment in renewable energies by offering long-term contracts to producers based on the cost of generating the power. The first point, investment protection, ensures operators of the power plants are not run out of the business based on the high costs of producing solar power. The bill ensured that the operators would receive a 20 year guaranteed payment for the electricity they produce. The German government considered the development of renewable energy a necessity, as they do to this day. Because there are no external costs associated with solar power, no damage to human or environmental health, the government did not want citizens having to pay a tax per unit of solar power produced, thus no public tax. When you consume units of fossil fuel power, the consumer pays a tax rate to cover some of the external costs associated with production and consumption. As for the feed-in tariffs, the government wanted to periodically lower rates for the cost of building new plants. This takes away some of the pressure from manufacturers and allows the technology to keep developing, thus becoming more efficient and less costly.
The EEG has helped turn the German energy market away from fossil fuels and onto renewable energy. They have created an investor-friendly market and have decentralized production so it is not in the hands of a few big players. The price of PV panels has dropped by about 66% since 2006.
The German people are innovators by nature, or at least this is what I notice of them. Old Soviet military bases have been converted into photovoltaic structures because there is no alternative use for them. Small towns in the middle of no where all have PV (photovoltaic panels) installed on them. In the southern region of Bavaria, where I live now, there is a population of around 12.5 million people. Every resident in Bavaria has on average three PV panels to their name- this adds up to more installed solar capacity than in the ENTIRE United States. Since the 90's, Germany has invested billions of dollars in renewable research and are practically the only country in the world that produces inverters, a necessary part for PV panels. Even more impressive, on a single sunny day in Germany, all of their PV panels combined produced enough solar energy to power half of the world. This is equivalent to the power from 22 nuclear facilities. Because of their continued growth and research in renewables, the price of solar power is likely to be competitive with coal within a few years.
However, becoming the Solar Power Super Star is not with out its problems. Part of the reason the prices of PV panels have dropped is because of competition from China. The Chinese are trying to push the more expensive German producers out of business by producing the same thing with cheaper costs. As a result, some German conservatives wanted to end solar subsidies altogether to prevent the plummeting prices from encouraging too many users. Another fear is that because solar power has become such a tangible project, the small scale producers could run the large scale coal and nuclear industries out of the market. This is actually a huge problem. Think about it- sunlight is an intermittent power. When it rains or snows or is foggy for an extended period of time, the PV panels can't absorb sunlight as easily. The technology to store solar power for long periods of time is not developed yet. So, when it is snowy, rainy, or foggy, consumers must rely on a back up source of power- coal or nuclear. If the small-scale solar producers run coal power plants out of the market, on days the sun isn't shining, people may not be able to have any electricity at all. We need coal and nuclear plants to ensure a steady source of electricity until researchers can figure out a way to store solar energy in the long-run.
So, now we must ask the question, was investing in solar technology in its childhood a wise decision? Consider the facts- the US has the best economy in the world, according to the IMF and Germany has the 4th best economy. However, Germany is about the size of Montana. It is doubtful, in my opinion, that one of the US states relative to Montana's size could produce the GDP Germany has, even if it was filled with big cities. Germany took a risk and invested in the technology early on. Germany was one of the leaders of the EU during the Kyoto Protocol discussions, at which time the US abandoned the policy because it would be too hard on the economy. Twenty years later, we see where each path brought each country. At this point, the US has a lot of catching up to do. We should be supporting this technology, especially in geographical locations conducive to long hours of sunlight, like New Mexico, Texas, and Florida. Germany has managed to grow their economy exponentially through the implementation of solar power and most of the regions are not "usually sunny". The city where I live has weather very similar to Chicago, yet it has way more sustainable features than Chicago does. It just goes to show that with the right political leadership and the right response from consumers, we could be the next leaders in the renewable energy industry.
Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/alternative_energy/2013/03/solar_power_in_germany_how_a_cloudy_country_became_the_world_leader_in_solar.2.html
In the early 1990's, German politicians from all across the political spectrum joined together to pass a renewable energy law called the Erneurbare Energien Gesetz, or EEG. It was among the first of its kind, so it was hushed by the politicians initially, but later was embraced by the citizens. With the reunification of Berlin in 1991, there was a golden opportunity to earn revenue from the development of the eastern side. Before the 90's, it was very unlikely that solar power would develop into anything by itself. Photovoltaic panels were expensive and the technology was not developed enough to be considered a solid investment. Producing energy from the sun costs up to 10 times more than producing energy from coal or nuclear power. This is why the German government decided to pass the bill. They knew the world needed to head in the direction of renewable energy, but it would never get anywhere in the market being as costly as it was. The decision to pass the EEG is truly the reason that Germany is one of the most sustainable countries in the world today- because they invested their faith in renewables before any other country did. Today, that decision is paying off.
The EEG bill was created to encourage economies of scale and lower the cost of becoming energy efficient. It sparked a huge effort amongst the German people toward becoming a renewable society. The three main points of the bill are investment protection, no public taxes on the bill, and innovative feed-in tariffs. A "feed-in tariff" is a policy mechanism that encourages investment in renewable energies by offering long-term contracts to producers based on the cost of generating the power. The first point, investment protection, ensures operators of the power plants are not run out of the business based on the high costs of producing solar power. The bill ensured that the operators would receive a 20 year guaranteed payment for the electricity they produce. The German government considered the development of renewable energy a necessity, as they do to this day. Because there are no external costs associated with solar power, no damage to human or environmental health, the government did not want citizens having to pay a tax per unit of solar power produced, thus no public tax. When you consume units of fossil fuel power, the consumer pays a tax rate to cover some of the external costs associated with production and consumption. As for the feed-in tariffs, the government wanted to periodically lower rates for the cost of building new plants. This takes away some of the pressure from manufacturers and allows the technology to keep developing, thus becoming more efficient and less costly.
The EEG has helped turn the German energy market away from fossil fuels and onto renewable energy. They have created an investor-friendly market and have decentralized production so it is not in the hands of a few big players. The price of PV panels has dropped by about 66% since 2006.
The German people are innovators by nature, or at least this is what I notice of them. Old Soviet military bases have been converted into photovoltaic structures because there is no alternative use for them. Small towns in the middle of no where all have PV (photovoltaic panels) installed on them. In the southern region of Bavaria, where I live now, there is a population of around 12.5 million people. Every resident in Bavaria has on average three PV panels to their name- this adds up to more installed solar capacity than in the ENTIRE United States. Since the 90's, Germany has invested billions of dollars in renewable research and are practically the only country in the world that produces inverters, a necessary part for PV panels. Even more impressive, on a single sunny day in Germany, all of their PV panels combined produced enough solar energy to power half of the world. This is equivalent to the power from 22 nuclear facilities. Because of their continued growth and research in renewables, the price of solar power is likely to be competitive with coal within a few years.
However, becoming the Solar Power Super Star is not with out its problems. Part of the reason the prices of PV panels have dropped is because of competition from China. The Chinese are trying to push the more expensive German producers out of business by producing the same thing with cheaper costs. As a result, some German conservatives wanted to end solar subsidies altogether to prevent the plummeting prices from encouraging too many users. Another fear is that because solar power has become such a tangible project, the small scale producers could run the large scale coal and nuclear industries out of the market. This is actually a huge problem. Think about it- sunlight is an intermittent power. When it rains or snows or is foggy for an extended period of time, the PV panels can't absorb sunlight as easily. The technology to store solar power for long periods of time is not developed yet. So, when it is snowy, rainy, or foggy, consumers must rely on a back up source of power- coal or nuclear. If the small-scale solar producers run coal power plants out of the market, on days the sun isn't shining, people may not be able to have any electricity at all. We need coal and nuclear plants to ensure a steady source of electricity until researchers can figure out a way to store solar energy in the long-run.
So, now we must ask the question, was investing in solar technology in its childhood a wise decision? Consider the facts- the US has the best economy in the world, according to the IMF and Germany has the 4th best economy. However, Germany is about the size of Montana. It is doubtful, in my opinion, that one of the US states relative to Montana's size could produce the GDP Germany has, even if it was filled with big cities. Germany took a risk and invested in the technology early on. Germany was one of the leaders of the EU during the Kyoto Protocol discussions, at which time the US abandoned the policy because it would be too hard on the economy. Twenty years later, we see where each path brought each country. At this point, the US has a lot of catching up to do. We should be supporting this technology, especially in geographical locations conducive to long hours of sunlight, like New Mexico, Texas, and Florida. Germany has managed to grow their economy exponentially through the implementation of solar power and most of the regions are not "usually sunny". The city where I live has weather very similar to Chicago, yet it has way more sustainable features than Chicago does. It just goes to show that with the right political leadership and the right response from consumers, we could be the next leaders in the renewable energy industry.
Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/alternative_energy/2013/03/solar_power_in_germany_how_a_cloudy_country_became_the_world_leader_in_solar.2.html
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