Posted on 01/26/2014 9:31:51 AM PST by rktman
Not surprisingly, a wind farm operator is at the center of Germany’s latest major financial swindle.
With 1,300 employees, Prokon is a relatively small company. Yet its advertisements were well-known to Germans. They always had three parts: pictures of a wind farm; a vague message that “something” had to be “changed”; and a request to make a loan to Prokon. In return, one was promised nothing less than “a future worth living,” and 8 percent interest per annum.
One of these propositions must have been alluring to many Germans, for the company successfully gathered about 1.3 billion euros (2 billion dollars) in borrowed capital. That’s small money compared to Enron, Lehman Brothers, or Greece, but in the case of Prokon, no banks or equity funds were involved. All of the capital came from retail investors, some of whom gave a big chunk of their lifetime savings, according to media reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Ich bin ein Ponzi Scheme.
They need to rename Prokon to Pro-Con!
Unreliable German solar and wind?
Who’da thunk!
Good thing our American solar and wind is reliable, otherwise all those subsidy dollars would be wasted.
...Denmark, the world’s most wind-intensive nation, with more than 6,000 turbines generating 19% of its electricity, has yet to close a single fossil-fuel plant. It requires 50% more coal-generated electricity to cover wind power’s unpredictability, and pollution and carbon dioxide emissions have risen (by 36% in 2006 alone).
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time for the German to terminate the plan to close all of their nuke power plants. and go back to that source of low cost energy.
Naw, better to scrap the old uranium reactors and develop new thorium reactors. The current nukes aren’t all that ‘low cost’ per kw/h when you factor in spent-fuel disposal etc.
But better to keep the old uranium reactors going to produce electricity until new thorium reactors are built. But will the Thorium call the Gods of Asgard upon Germany?
True, since the uranium reactors are still there, and just shutting them down doesn’t solve any of the long-term issues. Better to keep them on-line instead of wasting all that ‘stored’ energy. But the LIVs simply don’t think that far. And when the political top-end caves in to the LIVs you end up with this whole ‘renewable energy’ SNAFU. Sad, really.
It’s funny, the flood of anti- opinions, after so many folks in upscale neighborhoods received their fat tax credits and other government gimmes for having their uber-expensive, grid-tied, SHTF PV solar systems “professionally” installed.
Germany heavily subsidized solar energy—even for established individuals’ houses, as the U.S.A. did. Small PV Solar and wind plants work great, where there is enough sun or wind and systems are properly designed (excludes many overly expensive, “certified” products). In some places, solar or wind is the only way.
Most of the folks sucking Uncle Samantha’s teat for big bucks for installs aren’t in areas needing such systems. They’re all hooked up in many ways.
My “uphill” neighbor has a large solar array on his south facing roof. Since they are not there much of the time I’m thinkin’ it’s only for essentials in the house when they are gone. On the plus side (not) it makes a great roosting place for about 200 pigeons since there is about a 6-8 inch gap between the panels and the roof. YUCK!!!!!
Thanks for the interesting account. Yes, roof mounts can lead to hazards. Heh.
One of my own nearest neighbors (somewhat over 2 miles away) has a PV solar electric system, but their modules are mounted on posts. PV solar systems are good for powering security systems, too (including cameras for those who get efficient enough camera systems and configure them for low energy usage).
Like me, they are several miles from the nearest power company lines and don’t have any reasonable alternative. It’s very windy here much of time, too, but wind turbines need to be homebuilt to withstand the gusts (up to around 110 mph sometimes each winter). Due to NIMBY regulations, though, very expensive engineering fees are required for each wind turbine tower, and NIMBYs are always pushing for more regulations against neighbors.
Another county in the state (CO) restricts wind turbines to commercial ones with a particular certification (won’t last more than a few hours with the winds here) and limits solar heating collectors to those with a Florida certification that makes them outrageously expensive (high elevation with intense sunlight here, making the low-iron glass glazed collectors a stupid choice).
There are commies of all kinds, including those who limit the freedoms of individuals for the purpose of preventing competition, herding people to buy their own products exclusively and preventing the property rights and family rights of others to keep the neighborhoods...well, commie.
All of that said, I’m against subsidies for alternative energy (including tax breaks) and have not received any. A system built well by the person who owns it can be cost-effective. Professionally installed systems usually are not. And for some of us, grid power is not a workable option (too far away).
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