Germany's renewable energy revolution leaves UK in the shade

[kristopher]

Germany's renewable energy revolution leaves UK in the shade
The country expects renewables to contribute 35% electricity by 2020 – no matter what the cost


Damian Carrington, Feldheim, Germany
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 May 2012 07.37 EDT

The blazing blue skies that Germany baked under last weekend added a fresh gleam to the nation's renewable energy revolution: a new world record for solar power generation, equivalent to 20 nuclear power stations. It is the battle between nuclear, fossil fuels and renewables, and between the big utilities and the community-owned renewables eating into their profits, that has driven Germany's radical energy transformation to the top of its political agenda, with success seen as vital to chancellor Angela Merkel's hopes of re-election in 2013.

"We are still occupied by the four powers," says Werner Frohwitter, standing in the harsh sunlight below an 85-metre tall wind turbine in the flat east German countryside – referring to the four giant energy companies that have carved up the nation. They are RWE, E.ON, Vattenfall and EnBW.

The hamlet of Feldheim, set amid rippling rye fields and foxy-barked forests, rebelled. Its 128 inhabitants now get all their power by tapping into some of the 43 turbines dotting the fields around, some solar panels and a plant that turns farmyard manure into gas-powered electricity. When leasing of the local grid that connects the village's squat, steep-roofed homes was made prohibitively expensive, Frohwitter's company, Energiequelle, built its own.

Germany and UK energy statistics


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More at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/30/germany-renewable-energy-revolution?newsfeed=true

[Franker65]

1. Good stuff, but...

Interesting Kristopher. Good to see some more positive news. I just gotta ask what happens in Feldheim on a day where its cloudy and there's no wind. Or when the wind doesn't blow at night. I'm sure their bio gas plant can't fill in for those green energies when the the power source is sometimes absent. Then they have to go back to coal or nuclear.

[kristopher]

2. If you are "sure" then you can tell us how often that happens?

What is the amount of time when there is no wind or solar? Since I obviously don't have an inventory of available resources for "Feldheim" perhaps you can also tell us why neighboring renewable resources can't be part of the solution? Where are all of the distributed biogas plants, biomass plants, hydro facilities, geothermal facilities, tidal and wave facilities etc.

Once we have a full accounting of all the potential resources then we can answer your question with something better than nuclear industry talking points.