Germany Succeeds Making Energy Unaffordable For 15% Of Its Population – 600,000 Households Disconnected Annually!

Every year 600,000 households (2 million people) are getting their power switched off in Germany because they can’t afford the skyrocketing electric bills. At that rate the country (population 80 million) will become blacked-out like North Korea by 2050.

Renewable energy boom leaves Germans in the dark.

It’s one way of reducing carbon emissions – just catapult your population back to the Stone Age. Online German flagship daily Die Welt has an article on how skyrocketing electricity prices are making electricity unaffordable for a large number of Germans.

Many people in Germany are no longer able to pay their electricity bills. And energy prices continue to climb – rapidly. The president of the VdK social association Ulrike Masche, accuses the German federal government “of having neglected the social dimension of the energy transformation”.

Over 10 years ago Germany enacted the Renewable Energy Feed-In Act (EEG) which requires power companies to pay small producers of renewable energy exorbitant rates for their green power. The power companies in turn simply pass the higher prices on to their customers. Electricity prices rose 10% in 2011 alone!

So far Germany has committed over 100 billion euros to renewable energy, all to be paid for by the consumer. Little wonder that today almost a seventh of Germany’s population is now living in “energy poverty”.

The high costs are hitting the poor and retirees especially hard. Die Welt writes:

Klaus Müller, Chairman of the Consumer Office in North Rhine Westphalia estimates: ‘Ten to fifteen percent of the population are struggling to finance the constantly rising energy costs.” Every year 600,000 households are getting their power cut off.’

‘Earlier energy poverty was a fringe problem. However in the meantime it has become an every day problem,’ said Müller.

According to a survey by the consumer protection group, 600,000 households per year are getting their power cut off because of unpaid electricity bills. Foremost the rapid expansion of renewable energies has led to a 10% rise in electricity prices.”

As utilities are forced to buy the exorbitantly expensive renewable energy, even when they don’t need it, they are forced to increase the prices they charge consumers.

Die Welt writes that the prices are expected to rise unabated and that they likely will even accelerate. The feed-in tariffs will add up to 5.2 cents to the price of each kilowatt-hour.

The greens, the architects of the energy feed-in act, deny they are responsible for the disaster, and blame Germany’s current conservative, liberal-democrat coalition government for the skyrocketing prices. The truth is that all the politicians zealously supported the feed-in tariffs, especially the conservative CDU led by Angela Merkel, who was duped and spurred on by crackpot scientists in Potsdam.

Some leading politicians are beginning to return to their senses, however, and are calling for more coal and gas power plants.

Well, they’d better hurry up. Otherwise expect the pubs and beerhalls to come alive with angry political talk – and soon.

Happy May Day everybody!

 

33 responses to “Germany Succeeds Making Energy Unaffordable For 1533 Of Its Population – 600,000 Households Disconnected Annually!”

  1. Ecotretas

    Here in Portugal a lot of people are back to oil lamps!

    http://ecotretas.blogspot.pt/2012/03/candeeiros-petroleo.html
    (in Portuguese)

    Ecotretas

  2. Casper

    Welcome in the Middle Ages.
    In my opinion we always should follow SYOA rule and f…the crowd.

  3. DirkH

    The FIT is financed by a fee slapped on every kWh sold to the consumer, whether private or commercial. At the moment it stands at 3.5 Eurocent. In autumn the level for the next year will be determined.

    I hear rumors that it will rise from 3.5 to 4.5 to 5 Eurocent net year. Oh, I see Die Welt knows this already.

    Price for a kWh is at 23.5 Eurocent today and will reach 25 Eurocent next year; that’s about 33 US cent. (Industry pays about 10 cent less – you need to consume upwards of 60 MWh per year to get that tariff IIRC).

    1. Brian H

      Have you no cents?
      🙂
      (plural of cent …)

  4. sunsettommy

    I have no tears to shed for these people who keeps voting for the wrong people into political power.

    They are now reaping what they sowed.

    1. DirkH

      All the parties in Germany are for renewable energy. It’s the same situation as in the UK where you have the choice between pro-renewables Labour and pro-renewables Cameron.

      That’s of course what drives people to UKIP in the UK, to Le Pen in France, only Germany has yet to form an opposition. The economic crisis has not reached us by now. When it does, an opposition will form.

      (No, the German Pirate party is not that opposition. They are in line with the green policies. They are just another generation of watermelons.)

      1. Casper

        @DirkH
        In Poland there is a strange situation. No one said we were against “Green Politics”, No one said we were pro “Green Politics”, neither. Our government waits and hopes the problem will be solved itself due to financial crisis in the EU.

        1. DirkH

          That’s the smartest thing to do.

          1. Casper

            Well Dirk, I wouldn’t be so sure. On the one hand, this is a diplomacy: the government doesn’t say”Yes”. It doesn’t say “No”, neither. It says what Brussels want to hear. On the other hand, the government is unable to take any decision, and it also means an uncertain time for any investment.

      2. TheJollyGreenMan

        Dirk,

        Please note UKIP is the second biggest party from the UK in Bruxelles. The MEPs get elected on the proportional basis, and not the majority in the constituency as is common in the Westminster system.

        We have local elections on Thursday and we may be pleasantly surprised with the showing of UKIP (I hope!)

    2. TheJollyGreenMan

      Sadly, I agree. If people are stupid enough to believe the AGW madness they must face up to consequences of their decisions.

  5. Casper

    BTW,

    Chemical Industry Threatens To Exit Britain Over Carbon Floor Price
    http://thegwpf.org/uk-news/5592-chemical-industry-threaten-to-exit-britain-over-carbon-floor-price.html
    “In its latest quarterly survey of business confidence, the Chemical Industries Association said energy costs were easily the biggest problem its members faced, ahead of the regulatory climate and employers’ additional social costs.”
    Now, the best one:
    “But the Chemical Industries Association said it was not enough.“They’ve got to shield the industry, or it will just go elsewhere,” said Alan Eastwood, the association’s economics adviser.”

    If you don’t want to listen, find out the hard way.

    1. Brian H

      William Blake: “If a fool would persist in his folly, he would become wise.” If he doesn’t starve to death meantime.

  6. Brian H

    The Little Red Hens are about to leave the barnyard …

  7. Ulrich Elkmann

    OT, but still:
    “Green Fairy Tales” (the original Green Fairy, that is)
    http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2009/04/absinthe
    – subject to “many legends — [that it caused] hallucinations, madness, and infanticide, to name just a few”. Sounds familiar.

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  11. Green

    This article is utter bull**it.

    Everything is around this:

    “Over 10 years ago Germany enacted the Renewable Energy Feed-In Act (EEG) which requires power companies to pay small producers of renewable energy exorbitant rates for their green power. The power companies in turn simply pass the higher prices on to their customers. Electricity prices rose 10% in 2011 alone!”

    Which implies that thanks to EEG the electricty price rose 10% in 2011 and ONLY because of EEG the electricity price rose 10% in 2011.

    How much are they paying you to write this or you do it for free?

    1. DirkH

      “Green”; what other reasons are there for the higher prices?

      Please look at the graph on this page.

      http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_NAiYStw1PaA/TFBX90xFW2I/AAAAAAAAAXA/WMFbMpRKSBM/s1600/strompreisentwicklung.jpeg

      You will notice that since 2000, the year that the EEG was enacted by Schröders Red-Green government, there is an upward trend in the inflation-adjusted electricity prices.

      1. Green

        Yes. But you sill have to prove that ALL the increase in electricity price is due to EEG.

        And you miss the point. The spike in EEG levy was only in 2011. This year – 2012 the increase is practically zero. And it will very soon begin to decline because at the moment the EEG gives less euro/kWh than the people buy from the grid.

        This means that this energy can be sold at profit – what the PV owner get is predictability and 20 year contract. Yes – PV owners can and soon will make more money if they choose not to sign contracts with EEG but for now it is not that profitable.

        Which means that the EEG levy can begin to decline much earlier than the projected 2016 at 4.6 euro cents/ kWh.

        1. DirkH

          So you are saying by getting electricity from the most expensive and unreliable source available Germany is making a huge profit?

          That’s fascinating, Green, because according to all conventional wisdom, it should be the fastest way to ruin.

          May I call your economic breakthrough the “Green Economy”, after your name?

        2. DirkH

          Ok, more information, I think I have to spell it out for you as you seem incapable of thinking ahead more than one step.

          The price for a solar kWh fed into the grid – the FIT – is now LOWER than an end user electricity tariff (as that tariff is ridiculously inflated due to the EEG, the Eco tax, the VAT and the transmission fees). Let’s say 20 cent is the FIT you can get, and 25 cent is the price you pay to buy a kWh from the grid.

          So it makes sense to consume the self-produced kWh yourself. This is called Eigenverbrauch or selfconsumption. People who want to do that get another meter installed for the bookkeeping. Their installation will now max out the self consumption whenever possible. Yet, when they are not at home and have no appliance running that consumes it, they still feed in automatically.

          Furthermore, by buying more solar panels they can feed in as much as they can produce.

          So it makes sense for the owners of the PV installations to consume as little grid power as possible and feed in any surplus they have.

          As the REMAINING grid users still have to come up with enough money to satisfy the FIT debt, each one of them will pay a higher price – increasing their motivation to get a PV installation themselves. As they drop off, the remaining people consuming from the grid will have to pay a yet higher share per person AGAIN…

          This is a positive feedback loop; a Death Spiral. If not stopped, it will lead to infinite energy overproduction and an infinite EEG contribution per kWh. (the energy will not really be produced but feeding in will be stopped and PV owners will be compensated for the lost profits; getting the money for the kWh they COULD have fed in – the EEG has a provision for that)

          Of course, long before this price singularity, everyone who cannot get a PV installation will switch to a Diesel generator or any other means of self-generation – but most likely just get rid of all electric appliances.

          You Greens really have a devious talent to totally wreck a civilisation.

          1. DirkH

            I forgot to mention that owners of PV installations even get an extra (small) subsidy for each kWh they consume themselves.
            https://www.eon.de/de/eonde/pk/energieUndZukunft/Photovoltaik/Foerderung/Foerderungsmoeglichkeiten/index.htm

            Calling the system suicidal is, I think, not an exaggeration. Stein’s Law applies.

        3. Rudolf Kipp

          Dear Green,

          the development of the “Einspeisevergütung” (together with the projected 4,8-5,2 Cent for 2013) you can see on [url=http://www.science-skeptical.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Die-Entwicklung-der-EEG-Umlage.jpg/forum]this graph[/url]. The Development over the years together with some statements of politicians, I have put together [url=http://www.science-skeptical.de/blog/energiewende-immer-teurer-eeg-umlage-2013-bei-48-bis-52-cent/007491/]in this article[/url]. As you can see absolutely clearly, the progoses of the EEG-fee were always far behind of what was very soon later reality.

          1. Rudolf Kipp

            Sorry, I messed up the links…

            Dear Green,

            the development of the “Einspeisevergütung” (together with the projected 4,8-5,2 Cent for 2013) you can see on this graph. The Development over the years together with some statements of politicians, I have put together in this article. As you can see, the progoses of the EEG-fee were always far behind of what was very soon later reality.

    2. DirkH

      And another word, “Green”: The total amount of EEG subsidies is 16 bn EUR/year at the moment. 8bn of this goes to PV, the other 8 bn largely to wind and then to biomass. This, divided by 80 mill people, gives 200EUR per person. Only a third of the electricity is consumed by private households; another third by industry, another third by public infrastructure and public sector in general.

      So, each German – man, woman and child – pays about 70 EUR per year via the energy bill; another 70 EUR via higher prices for the goods he consumes, and another 70 EUR via higher taxes and fees for the public sector.

      If you disagree with these numbers, please say so; but not in the form of an angry rant; but with numbers. Thanks.

      1. Green

        I do not disagree they pay more but again you miss the point.

        Resent polls confirmed that Germans think that this increase is too low – the German people want to have more money spent if the Energiewende comes faster. I think that was the poll:

        http://k.lenz.name/LB/?p=4611

        And lets not forget the EEG levy will eventually peak and start to decline and at the end – in the long term (10+ year) – it will disappear BUT Germany will have huge renewable energy generation (probably at lower cost compared to fossils and nuclear) which means – energy independence, no imports, no pollution while generating electricity, no political dependence (Russia) , no economical dependence, jobs, etc etc etc etc

        1. DirkH

          I agree that Germany will sit on a huge pile of obsolete PV and wind turbines in 20 years that will all need replacement.

  12. DirkH

    Hamburg PV company Conergy will be partially sold to the Chinese. (30%)
    http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/conergy-chinesische-solarfirma-prueft-einstieg-a-832385.html

    I always found the name “con-ergy” very apt.

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