How Germany Is Getting to 100 Percent Renewable Energy

[marmar]

from truthdig:


How Germany Is Getting to 100 Percent Renewable Energy

Posted on Nov 15, 2012
By Thomas Hedges, Center for Study of Responsive Law


There is no debate on climate change in Germany. The temperature for the past 10 months has been three degrees above average and we’re again on course for the warmest year on record. There’s no dispute among Germans as to whether this change is man-made, or that we contribute to it and need to stop accelerating the process.

Since 2000, Germany has converted 25 percent of its power grid to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass. The architects of the clean energy movement Energiewende, which translates to “energy transformation,” estimate that from 80 percent to 100 percent of Germany’s electricity will come from renewable sources by 2050.

Germans are baffled that the United States has not taken the same path. Not only is the U.S. the wealthiest nation in the world, but it’s also credited with jump-starting Germany’s green movement 40 years ago.

“This is a very American idea,” Arne Jungjohann, a director at the Heinrich Boll Stiftung Foundation (HBSF), said at a press conference Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C. “We got this from Jimmy Carter.” ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/how_germany_is_getting_to_100_percent_renewable_energy_20121115/

[pscot]

1. Germans aren't the only ones

who are baffled.

[CRH]

2. What the Germans are proving to the world is ...

with the political will and a system less corruptible by established energy conglomerates, there are solutions for an alternate energy economy to support a less consumptive society.

Unfortunately the political will and less consumptive society design was needed several billion people ago. However, if the german approach was a global approach now, it would certainly lessen the future impacts and strengthen the odds of survival for factions of the present population.

It is hard for me to believe the true global economic powers in this world, still don't understand, that they have choked the life out of their future.

[wtmusic]

3. A complete fiction, and a dangerous one.

The environmental course Merkel has chosen is a disaster.

German nuclear cull to add 40 million tonnes CO2 per year

(Reuters) - Germany's plan to shut all its nuclear power plants by 2022 will add up to 40 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually as the country turns to fossil fuels, analysts said on Tuesday.

The extra emissions would increase demand for carbon permits under the European Union's trading scheme, thereby adding a little to carbon prices and pollution costs for EU industry.

"We will see a pick-up in German coal burn," said Barclays Capital analyst Amrita Sen. "Longer term, they will be using more renewables and gas but this year and next, we should see a lot of support for coal burn."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/01/us-german-nuclear-carbon-idUSTRE74U2Y220110601

Merci France! Germany Now Dependent On Foreign Nuclear Power

"All them windmills littering the landscape and the acres of solar panels mounted on roofs here in cloudy Germany are doing nothing to reduce energy dependency, and are unable to take up the slack left by the panicked Merkel-ordered nuclear power plant shutdowns in Germany.

In fact, before the Merkel government shut down 7 of Germany’s nuclear power plants in a fit of panic in response to Fukushima and the mass media-driven public hysteria, Germany had been an energy exporter.

But all that has changed. The billions spent on primitive renewables and the aversion to nuclear are all having a price, as the online DIE WELT daily reports today:

Before and after the moratorium – as is usual for this time of the year – between 70 and 150 gigawatt-hours were exported. After switching noff the German nuclear plants, that surplus disappeared. Since then 50 gigawatt-hours have been imported. The power coming in from France and the Czech Republic has doubled and exports to Holland have been cut in half."

http://notrickszone.com/2011/04/05/merci-france-germany-now-dependent-on-foreign-nuclear-power/

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. A complete fiction you say?

100% BS you say?http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/428145/the-great-german-energy-experiment/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]The Great German Energy Experiment[/font]

[font size=4]Germany has decided to pursue ambitious greenhouse-gas reductions—while closing down its nuclear plants. Can a heavily industrialized country power its economy with wind turbines and solar panels?[/font]

By David Talbot on June 18, 2012

[font size=3]Along a rural road in the western German state of North Rhine–Westphalia lives a farmer named Norbert Leurs. An affable 36-year-old with callused hands, he has two young children and until recently pursued an unremarkable line of work: raising potatoes and pigs. But his newest businesses point to an extraordinary shift in the energy policies of Europe's largest economy. In 2003, a small wind company erected a 70-meter turbine, one of some 22,000 in hundreds of wind farms dotting the German countryside, on a piece of Leurs's potato patch. Leurs gets a 6 percent cut of the electricity sales, which comes to about $9,500 a year. He's considering adding two or three more turbines, each twice as tall as the first.

The profits from those turbines are modest next to what he stands to make on solar panels. In 2005 Leurs learned that the government was requiring the local utility to pay high prices for rooftop solar power. He took out loans, and in stages over the next seven years, he covered his piggery, barn, and house with solar panels—never mind that the skies are often gray and his roofs aren't all optimally oriented. From the resulting 690-kilowatt installation he now collects $280,000 a year, and he expects over $2 million in profits after he pays off his loans.

Stories like Leurs's help explain how Germany was able to produce 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources in 2011, up from 6 percent in 2000. Germany has guaranteed high prices for wind, solar, biomass, and hydroelectric power, tacking the costs onto electric bills. And players like Leurs and the small power company that built his turbine have installed off-the-shelf technology and locked in profits. For them, it has been remarkably easy being green.

…

If Germany succeeds in making the transition, it could provide a workable blueprint for other industrial nations, many of which are also likely to face pressures to transform their energy consumption. "This Energiewende is being watched very closely. If it works in Germany, it will be a template for other countries," says Graham Weale, chief economist at RWE, which is grappling with how to shut its nuclear power plants while keeping the lights on. "If it doesn't, it will be very damaging to the German economy and that of Europe."

…



…[/font][/font]

[wtmusic]

6. Did you have something factual to add

or just more hyperbolic projections?

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. I’m sorry? What wasn’t factual? What was hyperbole?

Or are you simply waving away inconvenient facts?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/crossing-the-20-percent-mark-green-energy-use-jumps-in-germany-a-783314.html

[font face=Serif]08/30/2011
[font size=4]Crossing the 20 Percent Mark[/font]
[font size=5]Green Energy Use Jumps in Germany[/font]

[font size=3]During the first half of 2011, the share of renewable energy sources used by Germans in their total energy mix grew to one-fifth -- a hefty boost over 2010. It's a small step toward Germany's ambition to phase out nuclear power.

is a report that is bound to please Chancellor Angela Merkel. Just months after she expended significant political capital to guide Germany's future energy production away from nuclear and toward renewable sources, a report by a leading energy industry group indicates that production of renewables in the country is rising rapidly.

According to the report, released on Monday by the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW), renewables accounted for fully 20.8 percent of production during the first six months of 2011. "Renewable energies have crossed the 20 percent mark in Germany for the first time," the association said in a statement.

…

The increase, the BDEW says, is unconnected to Merkel's decision to immediately close seven nuclear power plants in the wake of the March disaster at the Fukushima complex in Japan. But it does give a boost to Germany's long-term effort to phase out nuclear power completely by 2022. Chancellor Merkel has said the goal by then is to draw 35 percent of production from renewables.

…[/font][/font]

[wtmusic]

9. But...but...what does "Inside Climate News" say about it?

(that's ok, it wouldn't be true anyway). But since you like Der Spiegel...

"Greenwashing after the Phase-Out

German 'Energy Revolution' Depends on Nuclear Imports

By Laura Gitschier and Alexander Neubacher

Germany's decision to phase out its nuclear power plants by 2022 has rapidly transformed it from power exporter to importer. Despite Berlin's pledge to move away from nuclear, the country is now merely buying atomic energy from neighbors like the Czech Republic and France.
Info

The nuclear power plant in the Czech village of Temelin, barely 100 kilometers (62 miles) as the crow flies from the Bavarian city of Passau, has a reputation for being particularly prone to malfunctions. Over the years, there have been 130 reported incidents here. Sometimes it's a generator that fails; at others, a few thousand liters of radioactive liquid leak out of the plant.

"The entire facility needs to be shut down immediately," says Rebecca Harms, a member of the European Parliament representing Germany's Green Party.

Still, due to high demand for electricity in Germany, the accident-prone Czech reactor is doing good business. Indeed, when Germany took some of its nuclear power plants offline this spring, the Czech nuclear industry went into the export business. These days, it's sending roughly 1.2 gigawatt-hours of electricity across the border every day.

Though it might be exaggerating things a bit to say it, after having to worry about the danger of the nearby Czech reactor for years, Passau residents are now glad it's there to keep their lights from going out."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/greenwashing-after-the-phase-out-german-energy-revolution-depends-on-nuclear-imports-a-786048.html

[OKIsItJustMe]

11. What does the EIA say?

http://www.eia.gov/countries/country-data.cfm?fips=gm#coal

[wtmusic]

13. You tell me

Is that graph supposed to indicate:

a) The nuclear cull was a good idea?
b) That Germany has switched from being a net exporter to a net importer?
c) That German CO2 output has risen because they're now burning more lignite?
d) That German coal smoke vs. Austrian coal smoke doesn't make a rat's ass of difference to the climate?
e) That poorly-sourced articles by wild-eyed optimists help fuck it up for the rest of us?
f) b,c, d, and e

[OKIsItJustMe]

15. Germany does not appear to be suddenly burning a whole bunch more coal

(Coal consumption remains about the same.)

So, stop pretending that all of a sudden there’s a big coal boom going on.

[wtmusic]

17. As of the end of 2011, which had a mild winter

Coal use predicted to rise 13.5% for 2012.

[OKIsItJustMe]

19. Not a problem!

World predicted to end in December 21st, 2012, so, “…the numbers are just not that important.”

[wtmusic]

8. The future is bright, I just can't see it through the coal smoke.

"what he stands to make on solar panels
If Germany succeeds in making the transition
If it works in Germany"

Keep up the cheery optimism.

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. I'm sorry, were you saying something about facts?

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/10/german-coal-fired-generation-of-electricity-falls-while-renewable-generation-rises

[font face=Serif][font size=5] German Coal-Fired Generation of Electricity Falls While Renewable Generation Rises [/font]

By Paul Gipe, Contributor
October 4, 2012

[font size=3] German use of coal to generate electricity has declined steadily from 1990 to 2011, according to readily available statistics on the German electricity system. The percentage of coal-fired electricity in German electricity generation has fallen from 56.7% in 1990 to 43.5% last year — a decrease of more than 10% despite a increase in total electricity generation during the same period of about 10%. At the same time the share of renewable energy in the electricity mix has increased from 3.6% to 19.9%, mostly due to the rapid development of wind energy and biomass.

It's necessary to make this statement short and succinct because, if anyone has missed it, there's a presidential election campaign in full swing here in the USA. And with it is a full-on, no-holds-barred propaganda war against renewables.

Weekly — if not more often — a new broadside appears and makes the rounds of generally right-wing blogs and talk shows. The latest talking point is that Germany is burning more coal than ever because of all the intermittent renewables that have been added to the system.

So, let's have some fun with numbers and separate fact from fiction.

…



…[/font][/font]

[wtmusic]

12. Ha! Love articles that take pride in "having some fun with numbers".

Apparently Paul Gipe thought these numbers weren't as fun.

"Coal use will rise an estimated 13.5 percent in Germany this year, resulting in at least 14 million metric tons of additional carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, even as the nation continues to idle two-fifths of its nuclear power fleet.

The major reduction in European energy demand and industrial output caused by the global recession has led CO2 emissions to slide faster than the emissions reductions mandated by either the Emissions Trading Scheme or the EU's commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. Yet instead of accelerating emissions cuts, the ironic economics of the carbon trading system have justified a return to coal in Germany and elsewhere, as a glut of emissions permits drives down the cost of carbon pollution and makes coal highly profitable once again."

http://thebreakthrough.org/archive/germany_returns_to_coal

Carbon production was down 1-2% in 2011 - but generation was down 5%. Let's have some fun with those numbers!

[OKIsItJustMe]

14. Here are the figures, have fun with them yourself

http://www.ag-energiebilanzen.de/viewpage.php?idpage=227

[wtmusic]

16. That doesn't tell us anything about carbon output, does it

so the numbers are just not that important.

[OKIsItJustMe]

18. Fascinating…

I must remember that one for the next time someone gives me facts I don’t like, “the numbers are just not that important.”

[wtmusic]

20. Here's more evidence you can use to support your view.

Hard to argue with that.

[Yo_Mama]

4. Germany has got real problems

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-energy-expert-argues-against-subsidies-for-solar-power-a-866996.html

They are going to have to junk the EEG but they don't know yet what to do.
http://www.germanenergyblog.de/?p=11292

Might want to read some of the debate over their situation. They haven't done the grid updates, and that is one of the real problems. But the bottom line isn't too good right now - they have impressive future expenses pending, and haven't yet really managed to move toward their actual plan.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/topic/german_energy_revolution/

The paradox is that the US is rapidly improving its CO2 picture, whereas Germany isn't.
http://news.yahoo.com/ap-impact-co2-emissions-us-drop-20-low-174616030--finance.html

That's because the net effect of Germany's current policies is to make power plants unprofitable but acutely necessary, so utilities are using those coal plants instead of gas:
http://thebreakthrough.org/archive/germany_returns_to_coal

It's bizarre that Germany is increasing its renewables so rapidly and increasing its CO2 emissions, but the net mix in Germany is getting "dirtier" rather than cleaner. And no one is really willing to admit it. The German public doesn't even know this.

One problem is that the build in renewable energy resources now exceeds grid capacity during high production periods, so the increased capacity is leading to decreased usage of production.