Just a few years ago, no party dared to express doubts over the Energiewende (Germany’s transition to green energies), or to question it for fear of being accused of environmental blasphemy and treason. But as the technical and economic problems of the Energiewende become ever more glaring, people and politicians are now speaking up.
One Germany engineering professor, Dr. Ing. Hans-Günter Appel, is now asking if the project “is near the end”
So far Germany has installed some 100,000 MW of wind and solar capacity, more than enough to more than supply the country during a windy and sunny day. But unfortunately the sun doesn’t shine 24 hours a day and the wind often stops blowing, sometimes for days and even weeks. They cannot be relied on. At times these two source of energy put out almost zero power.
The green energies of wind and sun are horribly inefficient and with Germany’s electricity rates at close to 30 euro-cents for each kilowatt-hour, they are among the world’s highest. Worse, there’s no end in sight to the price spiral, which happens to be the opposite of what citizens had originally been promised. Appel writes:
The prices have been rising year after year, and in a few years will exceed 50 euro cents per kilowatt-hour if the Energiewende continues as planned by the federal government.”
1 coal energy worker = 20 green energy workers
The engineering professor also warns that the country’s grid stability is becoming increasingly precarious, and that preventing a collapse is getting tougher with each passing year. As this is becoming ever more apparent even to technical laypersons, Appel writes that one huge obstacle against reform is the sheer ignorance by Germany’s ideologically-driven politicians, such as Green Party politicians Jürgen Trittin and Bärbel Höhn, who for example majored in sociology mathematics. They have near zero understanding of power grid technology.
For example, Dr. Appel cites Ms Höhn, who considers it a success that in renewable energies 370,000 workers are working to deliver 33% of the nation’s power. Coal power plants on the other hand employ just 20,000 and deliver some 40%. Dr. Appel writes:
One cannot imagine a better description for the senseless Energiewende policy. Using these figures it takes 20 green power workers to produce the same energy as a single conventional power worker.”
But there is hope. Some politicians are now beginning to understand the huge threats posed by green energies and are now starting to notice the “growing resistance against the impacts of the Energiewende“.
Appel writes that the message could even be finally reaching Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been stunningly oblivious to the glaring problems of the Energiewende. Appel comments:
Rarely do we hear anymore the words climate rescue and Energiewende from the Chancellor. These are being mostly excluded.”
“One cannot imagine a better description for the senseless Energiewende policy. Using these figures it takes 20 green power workers to produce the same energy as a single conventional power worker.”
The green industri allways bragg about how many jobs they create, but few makes the next calculation. What comes out of all these jobs?
The peoble needed for a given output tells very much about the price for that output.
They follow Milton Friedman’s advice on how to create jobs: Give these workers spoons, not shovels.
I thought the costs for the fuel is the determining cost factor for electricity generation and in case of solar/wind the capital costs. If the costs were determined by the number of people working in the field then this would look bad. But since that’s not the case it’s just another skeptic’s fantasy talking point.
There is also no way the electricity price will increase towards 50 cents / kWh, except due to inflation. Since the subsidies for expensive installations from the past reaching the 20 years limit will at some point be higher than the subsidies for new and cheap installations. It’s already pretty stable.
So “one Germany engineering professor” has an opinion. Good for him.
And since you paraphrased this “Appel writes that one huge obstacle against reform is the sheer ignorance by Germany’s ideologically-driven politicians, such as Green Party politicians Jürgen Trittin and Bärbel Höhn, who for example majored in sociology mathematics. They have near zero understanding of power grid technology.” from him … shall we take a look at who this guy is and his qualifications to be “Energiepapst” of Wilhelmshaven? Oh, and of course, he is retired … why do some retired people get this kind of fanatic in their old age?
Besides opinions, there are facts. Wind generated electricity is never what is needed. Most of the time, it is not enough, sometimes it is too much. It is never exactly what it should be. As electricity can only be stored in very small quantities, this inadequacy between offer and demand is a huge problem.
It’s called don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Funding depends on promoting the party line. Telling the truth is a revolutionary act, or at least career limiting. Those fears are removed in retirement.
Or you know … senility takes over and no colleagues are there anymore to keep the weird opinions of their professor in check. And thus, in retirement, all the weirdness gets released …
You must have retired at least a decade ago.
You groupthink [snip]. Drink more Koolaid. You need [snip]
Refrain from namecalling.
I wonder : what causes inflation, could higher energy prices be a fundamental driver, could excessive wage growth on superfluous workers (i.e. green workers) be a driver? The answer of course, is yes!
Having lived in germany for many years and seen year on year price increases and read in great deal about this nonsense called energiewende I can conclusively state that within 10 years they will be at 50 eurocents/kwh, maybe even as soon as 6 years.
Want to take a bet? I bet you the electricity price per kWh (adjusted for inflation) will be as high or lower than today in 10 years in Germany.
“what causes inflation”
In case you have not noticed, the ECB has been trying to increase price inflation for many years – without success. The Greens however have been doing a wonderful job on the other hand in raising the cost of electricity.
Seb,
Attempt to look at the demand curve for electricity usage.
Now compare with the supply curves for various sources.
Notice anything?
that “20” must be an average over all “green” energy generation, because it is MUCH worse for solar.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/content.washingtonexaminer.biz/web-producers/050317Slide1.png
I reached a similar conclusion in respect of solar pv and wind versus nuclear:
http://prismsuk.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/wind-and-solar-power-drain-lifeblood.html?m=1
LOL – just as I posted below before I read your link – parasites!
https://notrickszone.com/2017/10/25/engineering-professor-believes-german-energiewende-close-to-death-as-inadequacies-become-glaring/comment-page-1/#comment-1233748
(not out of moderation as I type this)
YES – ABSOLUTELY!
Bärbel Höhn should be required to hire 20 assistants, one for each day of the work month. All 20 would receive a wage as if they worked full time, and the funding source should be the Green Party.
If, after a year of intermittent assistants, Ms Höhn does not grasp the problems with this system, we should express our kindly sorrow (pity) for the poor dear.
Those solar/wind workers are working full time. You should be able to understand that nobody in the energy business is directly producing electricity with their work.
As SebH is obviously trying to obfuscate, John, it is that however the employees are involved, directly or not in electricity production, it is the profits (or, in this case, mostly the massive govt., subsidies) to the pseudo-industry that must pay their salaries. I.e., they represent a drain on the system, and the cost of supporting them is not justified by the output that’s provided.
Parasites do nothing to aid an organism survive. And the more parasites an organism has to sustain, the less healthy it is. While the support crew for “green energy” technologies aren’t parasitic on the “green industry,” they, and the whole “green energy scam” of which they are a part, ARE parasitic on society, which is why consumer costs keep going up.
Green energy.
The perfect way to send the peasants back to the dark ages.
Quite literally.
Sadly, the “greens” will be back in power in Germany, so there is no hope without radical measures. One such radical measure is to remove electricity generation from govt interference. I would set up an independent body of systems engineers and economists to design and maintain the electricity system, primarily for producing reliable power at the lowest possible cost, but of course meeting all laws. Let the politicians make laws, not targets.
A little diesel generator will produce 4kWh/litre. I gather the fuel price in Germany is around EUR1/litre. So with electricity at 30c/kWh is seems a diesel is more economic than the grid.
It appears the best solution for a 99.9% reliable household system would be solar panels, moderate size battery able to handle the largest peak demand and a little diesel with ability to divert cooling water into household heating.
South Australia got to 40% market share from wind and solar before the economics favoured making your own but it gets support from other States in terms of wind generation subsidy and interconnector able to supply about half the average load from coal plants in other states.
Another advantage of this household micro generation is that small diesels are entirely pollution free.
A small diesel generator is less efficient than a big one. According to different sources you can be happy when your generator gets your 3 kWh/litre and this only happens in the optimal range. When your household needs less energy (most of the time) the “mileage” will be worse.
A litre diesel costs around 1.15 € in Germany, a kWh electricity costs between 25 and 30 ct depending on location (for households, not for the industry).
This scheme is actually subsidized too in Germany. The diesel generators are called “Blockheizkraftwerke” (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockheizkraftwerk in case you understand German). It can be very efficient, but it’s still burning fossil fuel … so this only reduced emissions to a certain point.
Sarcasm?
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