Green Technologies: Can Germany keep its edge?
Germany has long been a leader in “green” technologies, but it’s facing growing competition from around the globe. In a special report for The Local, Sally McGrane examines the energy challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.
When it comes to renewable energy, Germany is a perfect ‘10’ – at least during 2010.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the passing of Germany’s comprehensive Renewable Energy Act (EEG), which has helped cover over 10 percent of the country’s total energy consumption from sources like wind, solar, water, or biomass.
And renewable energy in Germany isn’t just about fewer carbon emissions or energy independence, either: along the way, Europe’s largest economy has built up an industry that leads the world in exporting renewable energy technology, providing some 280,000 jobs worth an annual turnover of €40 billion.
In what is widely considered a success story for developing renewables in the industrialised world, Germany has demonstrated that a strong political will can kick-start and sustain a “green” technological revolution.
“The public really supports renewable energy,” said Claudia Kemfert, energy expert at the German Institute for Economic Research. “There’s no political party in Germany that doubts it’s a success.”
There have, of course, been hiccups. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition has back pedalled on Germany’s decision to phase out nuclear power and aims to cut feed-in tariffs subsidising solar power by 16 percent starting in July, which could lead to a wave of insolvencies in the domestic photovoltaic industry. Citizen groups have also sprung up lamenting how wind and solar farms are a supposedly a blight on otherwise bucolic Teutonic landscapes. But none of these issues change Germany’s fundamentally green credentials.
With laws first passed in 1990, Germany pioneered the feed-in tariff system as a political tool for encouraging the development of renewable energy. Under a feed-in tariff, producers of renewable energy are guaranteed that they will be able to sell the electricity they create at relatively high prices that remain fixed for twenty years. The additional costs are spread to all electricity consumers, who pay about €0.011 cents per kilowatt hour as a ‘renewable energy surcharge.’
“Critics might say it’s an intrusion into the free market,” Jörg Mayer, director of Germany’s Renewable Energy Agency, told The Local. “But supporters say that climate change can’t compete on the free market. That the real external costs are not covered by the amount we are otherwise paying.”
Article from: www.thelocal.de
Posted in: NEWS
