Posted on 06/28/2022 5:51:04 AM PDT by blam
American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin once said that “experience is an expensive school but fools will learn in no other.” Germany’s green energy policy, launched in the year 2000, could have been a cheap lesson for America today.
The Biden administration has chosen to follow Germany, providing heavy subsidies for wind and solar, while suppressing industries that could reliably meet America’s energy needs and even reduce its carbon footprint. In January, the administration announced that it had “pulled every lever to position America to scale up clean energy … the Biden-Harris Administration has readied offshore areas to harness power from wind, approved new solar projects on public lands, and passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to build thousands of miles of transmission lines that deliver clean energy.”
On June 6, the Biden Administration invoked the Defense Production Act to increase the production of green energy and to replace the use of fossil fuels. While the legality of this move is questionable, it established the U.S. government as a major controlling party in America’s heretofore private energy industry. But like most grand government adventures into industrial policy, the push for renewables is already revealing itself to be enormously wasteful and counterproductive.
Twenty-two years ago, Germany stepped into the forefront of the green energy movement, implementing its “Energiewende,” an ambitious program of subsidies for solar panels and wind turbines, coupled with a reduction in coal, oil, and natural gas. After the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, Germany decided to also close its nuclear plants.
In 2000, less than 7 percent of Germany’s electricity came from so-called renewables. By 2021, that share exceeded 40 percent of the country’s electricity generation and about 20 percent of its total energy consumption, including electric vehicles (EVs).
By the end of 2021, before the Ukraine war drove prices even higher, German households paid 32 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity. The rate in France, which kept its nuclear industry intact, was 23 cents. Americans paid an average price of 11 cents for electricity at that time—about a third of what Germans paid. Twenty percent of Germans’ electric bills went to a “renewables surcharge” to subsidize wind and solar.
Germany had spent heavily to increase its renewable energy capacity, but in the case of wind and solar, capacity never delivered the promised output. According to a 2020 report from the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Germany’s electricity output in 2000 was 54 percent of its total capacity, also known as the “capacity factor.” Unused capacity is the norm for power grids because the demand for electricity varies significantly depending on the time of day, the season, and the weather. By 2019, however, while Germany’s total electricity capacity had risen dramatically thanks to a sharp increase in renewables, its capacity factor had fallen to just 20 percent, largely because wind and solar generators were less productive than fossil fuels or nuclear.
The capacity factor for solar energy was just 10 percent because much of the country is often overcast. Wind energy was also producing well below capacity because wind turbines produced no energy on calm days and had to shut down on particularly gusty days to prevent turbine blades from being damaged. Even within those limits, the amount of energy produced by wind turbines was hugely variable depending on how hard the wind was blowing.
“It costs Germany a great deal to maintain such an excess of installed power,” the IEEE report stated. “The average cost of electricity for German households has doubled since 2000.”
A major problem with wind and solar is not only that they are unreliable, but also that they tend to generate the most power when people need it least. The peak seasons for wind generation tend to be fall and spring, but the peak demand for energy occurs in summer and winter when people need to heat or cool homes and offices.
An electricity grid must manage huge variability in demand. It must have enough capacity to cover peak demand, for example during the hottest hours of summer, but also have the flexibility to reduce power during early morning hours or springtime days when demand falls considerably. Because renewables are unpredictable in terms of how much energy they will produce, and when, they add substantial variability to the supply side of the equation as well.
“The whole idea that you would take something as complicated as an electric system, one of the most complicated things people have invented to date, and choose what to put on that system and how to run it by a popularity contest, to me that’s nuts and it’s going to end in tears,” Peter Hartley, Professor of Energy Economics at Rice University, told The Epoch Times. “Trying to run that system with politics is not a very smart thing to do.”
Treasonous acts.
It is not a “green energy policy.”
It is deliberate extermination of the US middle class.
The point that the left could care less about Green Energy or electric cars is being totally missed.
The object is to destroy America by what ever means necessary. GE is just one of the vehicles that is being used to transport up to destruction.
As a previous president had boasted, a "fundamental transformation."
It will fail, as the hard science and even harder economics of "green energy" cannot stand up to the most basic issues. Green energy is not economically stable or even feasible without subsidies, and is rife with corruption and abject failure as Solyndra and a whole host of failed "green" companies shows. This is why the media and Left sell imagery, not reality.
We have the Democrats dream administration enforcing the radical “agenda” on display for all to see. If the sheeple can’t reject this then there really is no hope.
In 2000, less than 7 percent of Germany’s electricity came from so-called renewables. By 2021, that share exceeded 40 percent of the country’s electricity generation and about 20 percent of its total energy consumption, including electric vehicles (EVs).
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As a matter of fact, Germany installed “Renewables” cover theoretically about 1.5 times the Germany energy needs.
in reality, this 150% theoretical capacity delivers only only 20% of the Germany real needs. Why? Because of nights, clouds, no wind, broken stuff....
The reminding 80% are still nonrenewable.
Think about it
When you hear the great projects installing soo much electricity. Divide at least by 7!
If you don’t go along you are a racist!
“It costs Germany a great deal to maintain such an excess of installed power,” the IEEE report stated. “The average cost of electricity for German households has doubled since 2000.”
Many decades ago, when I was in high school (albeit in a blue state), we paid 10 cents per kwh. Now I pay 10 to 11 cents per kwh here in Texas, depending on how much I use (the lower number is for higher usage, LOL). Those numbers are what the actual bills read, not inflation-adjusted.
People are CLUELESS as to how good they have it, and what the Left is about to do to them.
1) Solar and wind are unreliable sources of energy and require massive amounts of storage to become somewhat reliable. That storage makes solar and wind even more costly compared to other sources.
2) Even if you believe in man-made climate change, there is ZERO guarantee that a switch to solar/wind will fix the problem. This is no different than massive spending to conduct the war on poverty, war on crime and war on drugs....all of which were not solutions, but the spending continues.
3) There was no thought given to how to transition from hydrocarbon sources to “green” sources. There was no plan, no policy, no strategy. They just hate hydrocarbons and want to stop it now.
We are already seeing the results of Biden’s energy policy at the gas pump and indirectly at the grocery store. The other shoe waiting to drop is large scale blackouts. Last years Texas blackout could be repeated in large the parts of the country if heatwaves are experienced this summer. In the name of climate change fossil fuel and even clean nuclear plants are being shut down and the unreliable windmills and solar farms cannot begin to meet the demand. Climate idiots like Michigan Governor Whitmer will create a regional energy crisis if she succeeds in shutting down another pipeline from Canada. Biden’s policies could leave large parts of the country sweltering without air conditioning in darkened homes
I think one of the unforeseen consequences of the Globalists’ failed war against Russia will be that Gaia will take it right in the azz.
Its glorious! Already Germany is firing back up those coal fired power plants.
In the US we now have the cudgel of calling anybody who opposes fossil fuel to be a tool of Putin!
Since Leftists have accused anybody disagreed with them of being that, it will be a difficult charge to evade. eg “We and Europe need energy and we have it available right here. Putin is making his money from oil and gas. Therefore if you are against oil and gas here you are hurting the Europeans and you are making Putin a lot of money. You have to be a Putin stooge to oppose fracking on federal lands or drilling offshore or building more pipelines or building new refineries.”
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Suck it Gaia.
In other news the Obama’s are installing three propane storage tanks on their Martha’s Vineyard property.
But Greta said...
imagine an electric bill greater than your mortgage/rent
welcome to the marxist paradise
Yes, you will beg your leaders for relief and support whomever gives it to you.
Obama To Install 2,500 Gallon Commercial-Grade Propane Tank For Martha’s Vineyard Estate
“In 2000, less than 7 percent of Germany’s electricity came from renewables. By 2021, that share exceeded 40 percent of the country’s electricity generation and about 20 percent of its total energy consumption, including electric vehicles.”
In one year? That’s hard to believe.
Unbelievable that Germany shut down its nuclear plants.
Biden’s green energy policy code name must be titled Comply or Die?.
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