Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt, co-author of best-selling climate science skeptic book Die kalte Sonne (German) and The Neglected Sun (English) writes an opinion piece at the site of the German Employers Association here.
His conclusion: Germany’s energy-feed-in act is a failure. What follows are some excerpts:
On the costs, Vahrenholt writes:
…wind, solar and bioenergy sources are considerably more expensive than conventional energy sources. Currently in Germany €24 billion a year are paid because of the feed-in act. Federal Environment Minister Gabriel knows that unbraked expansion will lead to a cost avalanche of 1000 billion euros. […] The average family of three are forced to pay 250 € a year [currently]. “
On the practicality of installing so much solar capacity in a country with barely any sunshine…
Why on earth are we stalling 52,000 MW of solar energy capacity in the next years in a country that sees as much sunshine as Alaska?”
And
Wind and solar energy do not deliver a stable supply. Wind turbines produce only as much energy in a year as they would if they ran at full capacity for 1800 hours. PV systems only 800 hours. A year, however, has 8760 hours.”
What does that mean for industry? Vahrenholt writes:
The electricity costs for industry today are already 26% higher than the EU average. Compared to the USA, the difference is already 150%. The creeping process of deindustrialization has begun.”
No CO2 reductions. Vahrenholt also writes that no CO2 is going to be saved by German green energy:
With every newly built wind turbine and every new solar roof, not a single gram of CO2 is going to be avoided. That is because of the fact that in Europe the emission of CO2 is determined by emissions trading.”
On CO2 climate sensitivity:
The scientific findings that the climate impact by CO2 is wildly exaggerated are accumulating. There has not been any significant global warming in 16 years even though one third of the historical emissions took place in the period and CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has climbed year after year. The climate models, all whose prognoses have turned out to be wrong, are not able to compute the natural fluctuations of the climate. […]
Yes CO2 is a gas that has an impact on climate, but it will not cause the global mean temperature of the earth to rise more than 1 to 1.5°C by the year 2100.”
Obsolete model. Will other countries follow Germany’s once highly ballyhooed lead?
No nation on earth is going to follow us when they see that Germany’s own industrial basis is being destroyed and citizens are being financially overwhelmed. […]
The renewable energy act in it’s current form is simply supporting the old power plants of the last decades and is not leading to any CO2 reduction and is eroding the industrial base of Germany. It is not an export hit. Rather it is an obsolete model whose consequences can hardly be managed any longer.”
No nation on earth is going to follow us when they see that Germany’s own industrial basis is being destroyed and citizens are being financially overwhelmed. […] – See more at: https://notrickszone.com/#sthash.7RR3C3Kr.dpuf
I think he under-estimates the abilities of other politicians. They will follow germany to the end. There is no-one in europe prepared to defy the commisariate for fear of large fines.
“The average family of three are forced to pay 250 € a year”
These are only the visible costs in the electricity bill. Of course it’s in fact 900 EUR for a family of three (24 bn EUR a year divided by 80 million people)
The hidden cost is in taxation and higher product prices; as 2/3 of the electricity are consumed by public sectorand private companies.
— from central Washington State:
We live in a low cost energy zone with a Public Utility District (PUD) sourcing power from hydro on the nearby Columbia River. Some of your readers might find our rate schedule interesting:
Monthly Rate Schedule 1004 Residential & Farm Service
Energy Charge $.0875/kWh
+Single Phase $18.00 (a simple facility charge / month)
http://www.kittitaspud.com/rate_schedule.php
Major internet companies (Microsoft, Yahoo!, Dell, Intuit, Sabey and Vantage) have located server “farms” on the east side of the river and have access to the hydro power as well.
http://www.ifiberone.com/news/microsoft-buying-acres-in-quincy-for-expansion-of-data-center/article_414ffdd0-69d9-11e3-9e98-001a4bcf6878.html
The small city of Quincy has more tax income than they can wisely spend. Acoustic sensors designed to pick up the sound of gunshots have been installed in the city. Police can be in the area of a shot about as fast as it takes for the echo to die.
[The dams transformed the region but this isn’t the place to discuss when, why, who paid, and so on.]
German carbon fiber maker SGL Carbon has for this reason set up a fab in Washington state.
SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers LLC is a joint venture of the SGL Group and BMW, both based in Germany. The company’s new Moses Lake facility employs 80 workers
Carbon fiber produced at SGL’s Moses Lake facility will be used for the futuristic Megacity Vehicle i3 produced by German car manufacturer BMW.
http://www.commerce.wa.gov/Documents/SGL-Automotive-Carbon-Fibers-Profile.pdf
Also related:
http://www.recsilicon.com/aboutus/REC-Silicon/Moses-Lake/
Moses Lake is 25 miles (35) by road from Quincy