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newthinking

(3,982 posts) Sat Jun 28, 2014, 08:18 PM Jun 2014

German State to Reach 100% Renewable Power This Year

Incredible news.
To think: Just a year ago people were arguing this was impossible.

German State to Reach 100% Renewable Power This Year
by Josh Marks, 06/28/14

http://inhabitat.com/german-state-to-reach-100-renewable-power-this-year/

Germany recently smashed three solar energy records in just two weeks and set a new overall renewables record last month with 74 percent clean energy use during the middle of the day. Now the Federal Republic’s northernmost — and windiest — state of Schleswig-Holstein is set to generate all of its electricity from green energy this year. The state, which borders Denmark and the North and Baltic Seas, has a goal to generate 300 percent of its electricity needs from renewables.

Eight years ago Schleswig-Holstein only produced around 30 percent of its power from wind, so getting to the 100 percent mark in such a short amount of time is a significant achievement. According to a 2011 report on the economic impact of wind energy in the state, Schleswig-Holstein provided 11.4 percent of Germany’s total installed capacity with 3,271 megawatts from 2,705 turbines. A German Wind Energy Association report projects that by 2030 offshore wind capacity could reach up to 25,000 MW and onshore could get up to 6,000 MW.

Schleswig-Holstein is home to more than 200 businesses in the wind energy sector with around 7,000 employees. As of 2010, wind power in Germany provided more than 96,000 jobs and that figure is expected to increase as the nation commits to phasing out nuclear energy and replacing it with renewables.

While Schleswig-Holstein aims to become the first of Germany’s 16 states to pass the 300 percent renewables mark, a Bavarian village has already blown past that milestone. In 2011, Wildpoldsried produced a whopping 321 percent of its electricity from clean energy, generating four million Euro (US $5.7 million) in revenue by selling it back to the national grid.

10 replies

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German State to Reach 100% Renewable Power This Year (Original Post) newthinking Jun 2014 OP

We could do that with one windmill outside Congress. n/t malthaussen Jun 2014 #1

...or conventional hydro installed just under Boehner's tear ducts. n/t Benton D Struckcheon Jun 2014 #3

Now there is truly an "alternative" source of energy newthinking Jun 2014 #8

Germans - they really should be in charge of the world. aikoaiko Jun 2014 #2

Would that possibly allow for a profound shift in German-Russian relations? Erich Bloodaxe BSN Jun 2014 #4

Energiewende is built on a foundation of coal Union Scribe Jun 2014 #5

That's some interesting math... hunter Jun 2014 #6

And there's the nuke power supporters ^^^ RobertEarl Jun 2014 #7

Their emissions are UP. That isn't clean. Union Scribe Jun 2014 #9

Nuke emissions are down RobertEarl Jun 2014 #10

malthaussen

(17,183 posts)

1. We could do that with one windmill outside Congress. n/t

Reply to newthinking (Original post)

Sat Jun 28, 2014, 08:24 PM

Jun 2014

Benton D Struckcheon

(2,347 posts)

3. ...or conventional hydro installed just under Boehner's tear ducts. n/t

Reply to malthaussen (Reply #1)

Sat Jun 28, 2014, 08:53 PM

Jun 2014

newthinking

(3,982 posts)

8. Now there is truly an "alternative" source of energy

Reply to Benton D Struckcheon (Reply #3)

Sun Jun 29, 2014, 02:04 AM

Jun 2014

That would be the first time we get anything positive out of the guy

aikoaiko

(34,165 posts)

2. Germans - they really should be in charge of the world.

Reply to newthinking (Original post)

Sat Jun 28, 2014, 08:29 PM

Jun 2014

I'm kidding of course, but it is in the German psyche to make the world a better place. The means to that end. Was sometimes profoundly wrong.

Erich Bloodaxe BSN

(14,733 posts)

4. Would that possibly allow for a profound shift in German-Russian relations?

Reply to newthinking (Original post)

Sat Jun 28, 2014, 09:32 PM

Jun 2014

I seem to recall reading that Germany was rather diffident towards anti-Russian actions because they were still getting a lot of natural gas from Russia. Would these figures include heating via electricity rather than gas? Or is heat still being figured separately, and mostly via natural gas, and thus would still be unaffected?

Union Scribe

(7,099 posts)

5. Energiewende is built on a foundation of coal

Reply to newthinking (Original post)

Sat Jun 28, 2014, 10:46 PM

Jun 2014

Cheap, dirty coal.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-19/rising-german-coal-use-imperils-european-emissions-deal.html

hunter

(38,309 posts)

6. That's some interesting math...

Reply to newthinking (Original post)

Sun Jun 29, 2014, 12:27 AM

Jun 2014

... and overstates the value of wind in reducing fossil fuel consumption.

Per capita fossil fuel consumption in Germany is is still atrocious compared to most of the world, as it is in all "First World" nations. The average person in Germany uses ten times the fossil fuels as the average person in India, but about half that of the average U.S. American or Canadian. Germany is still a big consumer of coal, oil, and natural gas.

The true cost of wind power is underestimated because the cost of storage (usually hydroelectric), or standby power (usually fossil fuel plants), or grid stability measures, is not included in most calculations.

In a large power grid one has to account for all the costs of providing electricity. It's one big machine. The ability of the power grid to accommodate the fluctuating inputs of wind energy (or solar energy) have to be accounted for as they begin to become a larger fraction of the total power supply.

I'm not convinced a renewable energy society will look anything like a modern industrial consumer society, or that renewable energy will ever displace fossil fuels.

The only way to quit fossil fuels is to quit fossil fuels, to leave them in the ground, and then deal with all the consequences of that decision. But I don't think that will happen. We will continue to burn fossil fuels until the catastrophic environmental consequences of that bring about the collapse of this world civilization.

RobertEarl

(13,685 posts)

7. And there's the nuke power supporters ^^^

Reply to newthinking (Original post)

Sun Jun 29, 2014, 12:36 AM

Jun 2014

They will do or say anything to support nukes.

Nukes are the most dangerous and dirty power supply the world ever made. Germans know that and that is why they are leading the world in clean energy.

Union Scribe

(7,099 posts)

9. Their emissions are UP. That isn't clean.

Reply to RobertEarl (Reply #7)

Sun Jun 29, 2014, 11:13 PM

Jun 2014

Germany, your idealized leader in clean energy, is threatening the EU's emissions goals with their coal-hungry cheap energy addiction. How do you justify rooting for that?

RobertEarl

(13,685 posts)

10. Nuke emissions are down

Reply to Union Scribe (Reply #9)

Mon Jun 30, 2014, 02:26 AM

Jun 2014

Nuke power is all but dead in Germany. Will be replaced by green energy.

Germany saw what happened in Fukushima, and they have discovered that storing the nuclear waste is nearly impossible. The US is learning the hard way; search with this keyword: WIPP, to see just what a clusterfuck the US is dealing with re: its nuclear waste.

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