Germany's Solar Energy Output Surpasses Nuclear Generation in July

PV Magazine: Germany Breaks Record Wind and PV Generation in July

According to Fraunhofer ISE’s data, the amount of PV and wind generated electricity fed into the grid hit a record high in July in Germany. The PV power generated also matched up to nuclear. Another first.

July 2015 became a record month for the combined efforts of PV and wind energy. Both renewable sources managed to churn out more electricity than ever before as the statistics show.

According to the Fraunhofer ISE, 11.7TWh of renewable electricity was produced in July and this number surpasses the previous highs in January and March this year.

Bloomberg: Why Power Suppliers Most Affected by EPA Plan Don’t Hate It

Opponents of President Barack Obama’s plan to cut power-plant emissions say utilities will be among the casualties. You wouldn’t know it to hear from the power providers themselves.

For a group that must dramatically alter the way it does business to comply with the proposal, utilities don’t sound very annoyed. In fact, the industry’s main trade group said the Obama administration “seems to have responded to some of our key concerns.” The new rules will even boost profits for some.

MIT Technology Review: Smart Windows Just Got Cooler

Window glass that can tint on demand is pretty slick, but a new advancement has made it even cooler — and that could help the technology finally go mainstream.

Smart glass has been around for decades, but it is quite pricey and has found only niche applications, such as the windows of a new Boeing jetliner. But a new kind of electrochromic window glass, which changes color in response to the addition or removal of electronic charge, is more versatile than the technology now on the market, and it could be cheaper, too.

Wall Street Journal: Tesla Executive Presses Auto Makers on Electrification

Tesla Motors Inc. came to a conference here with a tough message for other auto makers: stop building compliance cars.

An executive at the Silicon Valley electric-car maker on Tuesday bemoaned the inability of General Motors Co. and other manufacturers to have better success selling their own battery-powered vehicles.

Instead, most other auto makers are producing electric cars to meet minimum regulatory standards while continuing to build and sell less-efficient gas-engine vehicles in droves, said Diarmuid O’Connell, Tesla’s vice president of business development.

Fuel Freedom: What Caused EV Sales to Drop Off a Cliff in July?

The website Inside EVs, which keeps track of monthly sales for all-electrics and plug-in hybrids in the U.S. and globally, has published its July numbers, and they’re abysmal: Only 7,102 were sold during the month, compared with 11,242 in July 2014.

There are still six models for which numbers are not available — Ford’s Fusion Energi, C-Max Energi and Focus Electric; Porsche Cayenne S-E and Panamera S-E; and the Kia Soul EV — but even if those cars come in at the same level as this June, the overall sales tally will still be well under last year’s pace.

For the first six months of 2015, a total of 61,449 EVs have been sold domestically, compared with 123,049 during the same period last year. Meantime, the rest of the world continues to outsell the U.S., thanks in part to generous subsidies in many European countries.

Tags: editors news feed, energiewende, germany, nuclear

Germany"s Solar Energy Output Surpasses Nuclear Generation in July

Report: Germany's 'Green' Revolution Is Running Out Of Money

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It wasn’t long ago that President Barack Obama was pointing to Germany as an example of how the U.S. should develop green energy, but that was before news that Europe’s biggest economy might be running out of money for its green energy revolution.

Germany’s $412 billion plan to power itself with green energy may be running low on cash, according to a new report by financial consultants, as consumer energy prices skyrocket and traditional power plants require more subsidies to stay in business.

“The necessary equity funds for the expansion of the network infrastructure and offshore wind can probably be provided only with the participation of alternative and international investors,” warns a report by consultants with Roland Berger and the World Energy Council.

“High risks however make it questionable whether the investment needs can be met at a sufficient capacity and speed,” reads the unpublished study obtained by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a German newspaper.

For years, Germany has been trying to force more wind and solar energy onto its electrical grid, but what started as a well-intended effort to fight global warming devolved into an expensive labyrinth of subsidies and special interest politics.

The idea was that once the grid was transformed to power more green energy, costs would go down as new technologies and efficiencies came onto market. But the report by Roland Berger and the World Energy Council cautions that at least 280 billion euros will be needed in the next 15 years to meet Germany’s green goals. And that’s with “sustained political support,” the report warns — without it, the transformation could get even more costly.

That’s only the tip of the cost-berg, the report warns. The report also warns that funding for offshore wind farms faces “high risk and market entry barriers” and a “significantly tighter situation.” Germany and other Europeans countries are increasingly relying on offshore wind farms for electricity, especially as nuclear power plants are phased out.

“The high risk of investing in offshore wind farms, however, contradicts the risk profile of institutional investors,” the report warns.

And don’t forget money needed for the transmissions systems required to bring such localized and dispersed electricity production to the homes and businesses which need it. The German Energy Agency estimates these systems will cost the country 28 to 43 billion euros by 2040.

One thing that’s often overlooked by green energy supporters is that people need energy while new sources are being built. Germany’s energy transition, however, is causing traditional power plants — which still supply most of the country’s power — to go into the red financially and require an ever increasing amount of state subsidies to survive.

“Many traditional utilities, which previously financed investments in the electricity sector, mainly through their shareholders’ equity, are today with their backs to the wall,” Uwe Franke, president of the German wing of the World Energy Council, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Franke told the paper that “new investors would have to be found to ensure ‘the energy transition and the security of supply.’”

[H/T The Global Warming Policy Forum]

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Report: Germany"s "Green" Revolution Is Running Out Of Money

Column: Germany's energy transformation based on unsustainable subsidies, an unstable system

On Dec. 3, while 190 governments were meeting for two weeks of climate change talks in Lima, Peru, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet agreed to a package that continues Germany’s optimistic but unrealistic goal and increases subsidies for measures designed to cut emissions.

Regarding Germany’s “climate protection package,” Barbara Hendricks, Environment Minister, admitted, “if no additional steps were taken, Germany … would miss its targets by between five to eight percentage points.”

The results of the German agreement will require operators of coal-fueled power plants to reduce emissions by at least 22 million tons — the equivalent of closing eight of them. The Financial Times believes the plan will “lead to brownouts in German homes.”

With the goal of generating 80 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2050, Germany has aggressively pursued a green dream with unsustainable subsidies that have produced an unstable system described by the Financial Times on Nov. 25 as “a lesson in doing too much too quickly on energy policy.”

So what should the U.S. and other countries learn from Germany’s generous subsidy programs and large-scale deployment and integration of renewable energy into the power system? These are the questions U.S. legislators should be asking themselves as they argue over a tax extender package that includes a retroactive extension for the now-expired Production Tax Credit for wind energy.

Fortunately, the answers are easy to determine. Finadvice, a Switzerland-based adviser to the utility and renewable industry, did an exhaustive study, “Development and Integration of Renewable Energy — Lessons Learned from Germany.”

The report’s introductory comments include the following statement, “The authors of this white paper would like to state that they fully support renewables as a part of the power portfolio. … a couple (of the authors) have direct equity interests in renewable projects.” The authors’ viewpoint is an important consideration, especially in light of their findings. They wanted Germany’s experiment to work; yet they begin the executive summary with these words:

“Over the last decade, well-intentioned policymakers in Germany and other European countries created renewable energy policies with generous subsidies that have slowly revealed themselves to be unsustainable, resulting in profound, unintended consequences for all industry stakeholders. While these policies have created an impressive roll-out of renewable energy resources, they have also clearly generated disequilibrium in the power markets, resulting in significant increases in energy prices to most users, as well as value destruction for all stakeholders: consumers, renewable companies, electric utilities, financial institutions, and investors.”

After reading the paper, I was struck with three observations. The experiment has 1) raised energy costs to households and business; 2) the subsidies are unsustainable; and 3) without intervention, the energy supply is unstable.

Anyone who reads the paper will conclude there is far more to providing energy that is effective and economical than the renewable fairytale storytellers want consumers to believe. The German experiment proves butterflies, rainbows and pixie dust won’t power the world after all — coal, natural gas and nuclear energy are all important parts of the power portfolio.

If only U.S. legislators would read the paper before they vote for more subsidies for renewable energy, maybe we could learn from Germany’s expensive and destructive experience what they haven’t yet learned themselves.

The author of Energy Freedom, Marita Noon serves as the executive director for Energy Makes America Great Inc. and the companion educational organization, the Citizens’ Alliance for Responsible Energy.

Column: Germany"s energy transformation based on unsustainable subsidies, an unstable system