Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumReality Check: Germany's Defective Green Energy Game Plan
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/commentary-why-germany-is-waging-its-green-revolution-wrong-a-929693.htmlGermany pretends to be a pioneer in the green revolution. But its massively expensive Energiewende has done nothing to make the environment cleaner or encourage genuine efficiency. One writer argues: Either do it right, or don't do it at all.
Reality Check: Germany's Defective Green Energy Game Plan
A Commentary By Alexander Neubacher
October 25, 2013 04:13 PM
So, perhaps you've heard about Germany's heroic green revolution, about how it's overhauling its entire energy infrastructure to embrace renewable energy sources? Well, in reality, our chimney stacks are spewing out more than ever, and coal consumption jumped 8 percent in the first half of 2013. Germans are pumping more climate-killing CO2 into the air than they have in years. And people are surprised.
Why coal, you might ask? Aren't Germans installing rooftop solar panels and wind turbines everywhere? What's being done with the billions of euros from the renewable energy surcharge, which is tacked onto Germans' power bills to subsidize green energy and due to rise again soon? This is certainly not how we imagined the Energiewende, Germany's push to abandon nuclear energy and promote renewable sources, which Chancellor Angela Merkel's government launched in 2011 in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
This same government acts as if this coal fever were merely a growing pain or transitional problem. But that's not true. Instead, it stems from structural flaws in the Energiewende. Renewable energy and the coal boom are causally linked. The insane system to promote renewable energy sources ensures that, with each new rooftop solar panel and each additional wind turbine, more coal is automatically burned and more CO2 released into the atmosphere.
Indeed, Merkel's Energiewende is morphing into an environment killer. It burdens the climate, accelerates the greenhouse effect and causes irreversible damage.
Vinnie From Indy
(10,820 posts)eom
Democracyinkind
(4,015 posts)They laughed at us back then when we told them that the whole "letting the market do the transition" would backfire.
In fact, I wrote a LTE back in the day in which I made two predictions:
1. Certificates would be priced too cheaply in order for them to push coal out of the grid.
2. Private energy corporations have no incentive to make the investments into the grid that are necessary for the coming transition.
Both proved true, and even though the conservatives have joined the transitional bandwagon, we are at a worse place today than when this whole mess was dreamed up.
And people say I'm a pessimist for no god reason. They don't get any better than this. These two factors fucked the market up for good.
Iterate
(3,020 posts)Among his other claims, water saving makes the streets stink, energy saving lights cause pollution, and four-bin recycling causes waste. He's also expressed concern over the over-population of polar bears and teaching environmental activist to young teens.
His claims here have been debunked over-and-over. Imagine Mark Lynas speaking German.
He is, or at least was, the business editor at Spiegel, and is generally pro-FPD. I don't think it's a coincidence that the CDU-CSU has begun talks this week with the SPD over the formation of a new coalition. Bye-bye FDP.
gtar100
(4,192 posts)the program. Conservatives love to find problems with progressive programs but they suck at coming up with solutions or viable alternatives. Very good at tearing things apart though.