Thursday, PV-Solar broke through the 20 GW barrier for the first time, but before I managed to write about that, it’s old news already. On Friday, output from PV-Solar climped up to a staggering 22,240 MW as Germany experiences a week of wonderful summer weather. Thursday To start, I will take … [continued]
The first two parts of this series took a closer look at the political changes that occurred here in Germany at the beginning of this still young decade. Last year saw a 180° course correction by the conservative federal government in terms of energy policy. While the nuclear phaseout didn’t happen because of … [continued]
A Small Town in Germany The municipality of Bruchsmühlbach-Miesau consists of typical German small towns and villages. Located in the West German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, this collection of settlements is home to about 10,500 people. What’s not so typical about the town of Miesau is the fact that it’s also … [continued]
Where is the Positive Image of Nuclear Energy Coming From? Despite the problems and disasters of the past and present, nuclear power is still being praised for being a cheap, abundant, and clean form of energy production by many politicians. Of course, it’s also “safe” and without any kind of … [continued]
Macro-Economic Benefits An increasing number of countries have formulated policies to introduce renewable energy sources into their electricity supply in order to combat global warming or to decrease their dependency on imported fossil fuels. A positive side effect of this development has been the macro-economic benefits gained by each … [continued]
When Wind Turbine Engineers Face Shipping Problems Engineers are a practical thinking bunch. When they encounter a problem, they think of it as a challenge that has to be solved by utilizing the mighty forces of applied science. The engineers that make up the management of the leading German wind … [continued]
A New Focal Point In the first part of this “Road to 2020” series of posts, I looked at how the pro-nuclear & renewable-sceptical center-right federal government of Germany made a 180° turnaround in terms of energy policy back in 2011. While this was good news, it’s of course … [continued]
Political Fallout In the summer of 2011, the conservative federal government of Germany passed a law that will phase out nuclear power in Germany by 2022, and they proclaimed the so-called “Energiewende.” This announcement was made with a lot of pathos and was accompanied by even more talk about the … [continued]
Not a Joke On a cloudy saturday, on April 1, 2000, the German “Renewable Energy Sources Act” entered into force replacing the “Feed-in Law” of 1991. It’s unique features were 1) a renewable-energy-source-specific feed-in tariff (FiT) guaranteed for 20 years and 2) minimum goals for the share of renewable energy … [continued]
Scroll to the bottom to watch the video (but you probably want to read the post for context first). More than a Decade Ago… 12 years have passed since the German parliament adopted the “Renewable Energy Sources Act” — it was adopted on March 29, 2000. This law was primarily … [continued]
