Germany Blows Us Away with Its Commitment to Onshore and Offshore Wind
As shown at left and discussed in this article from Bloomberg, Germany’s massive installation of wind (on top of its solar) has, for the first time, pushed its electricity generation from renewable sources above that of coal and nuclear.
As we enter this time of festivity, let’s celebrate our accomplishments of the past, i.e., the enormous contributions that fossil fuels have made to our society, while welcoming in the glories of the future, as we move to new forms of clean energy, so as to prevent climate catastrophe. As we lift our voices in song this holiday season, let’s not forget the urgency of the situation here on our home planet, where the concentration of CO2 is 40% greater and that of methane is 150% higher than they were 200 years ago, largely as a result of our consumption of fossil fuels.
Also, let’s not forget about what Germany, in particular, has done here. These are people known for their conservative approach to problem-solving, who, quite bravely (and uncharacteristically), are taking considerable risks to lead the world in the direction of sustainable prosperity. Einfach herrlich (simply stupendous)!
Ausgezeichnet (outstanding) fur Deutschland!
Like it! From the old VW commercial….
Craig,
It must be wonderful indeed to own a pair of rose tinted glasses with totally selective vision !
The capacity to observe only what you want to observe is very human, but also delusional.
Just a small amount of research (or read a little of what your own readers write) would inform you Germany’s Wind and Solar industries are a complex charade and largely a failure.
Germany’s use of coal has actually increased to over 40% of domestic power generation, unfortunately this is the result of forcing old power stations back into usage, and increasing reliance on local brown coal.
Meanwhile Germany fell behind EU pledged greenhouse gas emission targets in 2015, again by an even larger margin in were missed in o estimates, rose in 2015 and probably in 2016 and 2017 will see Germany return to emissions not seen since the end of the twentieth century.
The price of electricity has risen fourfold since 2010 (50% last year alone) while economic competitiveness has fallen alarmingly.
Germany’s laws compel grid operators to pay Wind and Solar power providers for all they produce. The law also requires all renewable power production to be counted as “used” (thus distorting all those “good news” graphs).
Analysis of German power consumption and supply is made incredibly difficult to the the incomprehensible regulations, complex trading rules and Government secrecy.
Merkel and her Green allies are losing popularity and their grip on government as the German people become aware of all the empty promises and deceptions.
Energiewende kaput est.
@Marcopolo you are being overly generous (as usual).
The last time I was at an energy engineers and academics seminar in Berlin (SolarPraxis), I detected gloom and pessimism (in spades) among the largely German engineering participants.
It was cold, dark and snowing all week also. Thankfully the central heating systems were working well (gas and oil powered I was embarrassingly informed).
Oh well..Ho hum.
Lawrence Coomber
Hi Lawrence,
Well, that’s just your own fault ! You should’ve made the effort and asked reception for a pair of those rose coloured spectacles Craig always seems to find when attending such functions 🙂
As I type, I’m 39000 ft above the Pacific Ocean heading home after my lengthy odyssey in the US. I’m looking forward to being home in Australia for Christmas.
I wish you a joyous Christmas and hope the New Year brings you “interesting times ” !