Germanys Green Energy Policy

The Green movement has been sweeping the nation and even the world. A new way of living that can make this planet a healthier place. As we all know the earth has been around for a very long time; Argo it has been through a lot of abuse, mainly caused by us.The biggest problem is the release of CO2 in the air due to the burning and use of Fossil Fuels. This CO2 release stays in the air for years. This is believed to be the leading cause of Global Warming. Many scientists, innovators, and people like you and me are trying to find ways to diminish the use of fossil fuels. One place that is really starting to take the green movement seriously is Germany.  

      Germany has been working on solving this problem for many years. Their strongest idea is the use of wind. The company Repower Systems was used to put large windmills on the coast of Germany. These windmills were made from very strong material that could withstand all of the treacherous storms that come on the coastline. These windmills would be able to produce 5 megawatts of energy every 5 seconds. Windmills were scattered along the coast for a reason. The winds along the coast are usually very strong. This is important in creating a significant amount of energy. Although this seemed to be a great idea for Germany it was still a new concept at the time of 2000. There was a hope that this would decrease the emissions of greenhouse gasses. Only a handful of windmills have been created; therefore the emission rate has only decreased slightly. Germany became discouraged and looked to the U.S for solutions. It had seemed at this point that Germany seemed to have given up. It is sad to see because Germany is known to be the only country that has always pushed the use of renewable gasses to be a top priority.

                Nuclear power plants are what supply most of the counties electrical needs. The next project that Germany created was to diminish the use of power plants. Germany still believed that the way to get rid of the power plants was the use of wind energy. The problem was convincing the public. Many farm owners were not excited with the idea of a large windmill to be put next door. It was then discussed and decided that it would be better to put the windmills offshore because the wind would be stronger. This eliminated the problem of public backlash. That problem was over but it was not the last. What comes next is the backlash from the conservationists. Many birds migrate and feed in the areas along the shore where the windmills would be. In 2005 they found areas of wind that were far enough in the water that the windmills would not affect life on the shore. The cost of all of this and now the cost of using wind as an energy source proved to be higher than what was already being used. By 2020 it is said that the cost of energy will be 60 percent more than 2011.This is the cost of renewable energy, not the use of fossil fuels. It would benefit the planet but if no one can afford it, than what good is it? The way this will work is if more power company’s get on board with the switch to wind. Without the almost 1.2 billion dollars needed wind farms cannot be built.

Wind is unpredictable. That seems to be the biggest problem. Without wind the entire project fails. Sometimes there is a huge amount of wind and other times a light breeze. Because it is not a steady wind, energy is not being produced at an equal rate. The wind controls the energy. There would be days that the energy would be at a very low rate, people may even loose power all together. This is a serious problem. It Germany does switch completely to wind energy there is one way it could work. Due to the unpredictability of wind, to compensate for a low wind day Germany would have to have an HVDC super grid that would share Scandinavians hydropower, North Africans Solar Energy with the Northern Europe’s offshore wind energy. This has caused Germany to have some enemies. What they were doing, which is wrong was using powergrids on neighboring countries without their permission. Poland and the Czech Republic are upset because if they are a part of the green policy than their energy bill goes up and if the project suffers so do they; therefore they banned the policy from being established in their countries. This made Germany feel powerless in their efforts. Unfortunately due to the heavy reliance on coal as the main source of energy, Germany has now been lagging in their wind efforts. They feel now that it is important to still have nuclear power plants; although before it was looked at as a problem. It still seems to be an issue, just one that Germany isn’t too concerned about at the moment. However they are working hard to get rid of the use altogether. Today the use is almost completely non-existent, but coal is the greatest source of energy for Germany once again. 

Sources :

"Germany's Green-Energy Gap." - IEEE Spectrum. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Sept. 2013.

Dini, Jack. "Germany’s Green Energy Policy Hit Households Hard." Canada Free Press. N.p., June-July 2012. Web. 11 Sept. 2013.

Welt, Die. "Poland And Czech Republic Ban Germany’s Green Energy." The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF). N.p., 28 Dec. 2011. Web. 11 Sept. 2013.