Germany sours on solar power....
It's proving to be a disaster...
The Baedeker travel guide is now available in an environmentally-friendly version. The 200-page book, entitled "Germany - Discover Renewable Energy," lists the sights of the solar age: the solar café in Kirchzarten, the solar golf course in Bad Saulgau, the light tower in Solingen and the "Alster Sun" in Hamburg, possibly the largest solar boat in the world.
The only thing that's missing at the moment is sunshine. For weeks now, the 1.1 million solar power systems in Germany have generated almost no electricity. The days are short, the weather is bad and the sky is overcast.
As is so often the case in winter, all solar panels more or less stopped generating electricity at the same time. To avert power shortages, Germany currently has to import large amounts of electricity generated at nuclear power plants in France and the Czech Republic. To offset the temporary loss of solar power, grid operator Tennet resorted to an emergency backup plan, powering up an old oil-fired plant in the Austrian city of Graz.
Solar energy has gone from being the great white hope, to an impediment, to a reliable energy supply. Solar farm operators and homeowners with solar panels on their roofs collected more than €8 billion ($10.2 billion) in subsidies in 2011, but the electricity they generated made up only about 3 percent of the total power supply, and that at unpredictable times.
posted by GayandRight @ 1:17 PM
3 Comments:
All of these so called green energy initiatives are turning out to be useless or a least far under performing what was promised.
I think that the future belongs to Natural Gas, Clean Coal and Nuclear. (Assuming the environmentalists and area residents ever allow one of these to be approved again)
When they have to start printing the wheel barrow-loads of euros, they can use that for fuel too!!
I think we need to concentrate on extracting energy more efficiently from fossil fuel sources. I'm still looking forward to perfecting the fuel cell. Personally, I think it is the best fuel source we could possibly have.
Double plus, it'll enable us to have electricity from competing sources of energy. You'll be able to get it from either the electric utility, or the gas utility.... or even from the propane pumps at the local gas station!
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