Siemens has been awarded the contract to provide 97 wind turbines for the Gode Wind 1 and Gode Wind 2 projects to be installed off the North Sea island of Juist. The turbines each rate at 6 MW and, upon completion, the two wind farms will reach a capacity of … [continued]
The goal of having over one million electric vehicles on the roads of Germany within the decade is an achievable one, according to Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn. At a recent panel discussion in the northern European country, the noted CEO stated that VW was committed to the ambitious goal set … [continued]
Originally published on the Lenz Blog Yesterday’s announcement of a 6.24 cent surcharge in Germany came with a lot of interesting reports attached. One assumption behind this number is that the cost of the system for 2014 will be EUR 21.26 billion, see this report (page 8). Last year’s GDP is estimated by Statistisches Bundesamt as … [continued]
Originally published on the Lenz Blog by Karl-Friedrich Lenz The German government just published a report on recommendations from the EU Commission about the costs of the German energy shift (in German). Thanks for this Beck news item for the link. The first thing one needs to note about this kind of … [continued]
Originally published on 1Sun4All. This infophoto shows the current information available on offshore wind in a graphic form, so we can easily see the big picture. It will be fun to update this in a year and look back at the progress that’s been made. It will also be wonderful to see … [continued]
This article first appeared on RenewEconomy The world’s biggest supplier of solar inverters, SMA Solar Technology, has announced that it will be mass marketing its award-winning household solar battery system in the fourth quarter of 2013. German-based SMA’s Sunny Boy Smart Energy technology – which won best product in the … [continued]
This article first appeared on the Lenz Blog From this tweet by the always excellent Energiewende Germany I learned about an article titled “Hydrogen plant starts storing wind energy in Germany“. As is clear from the title, this is another project to use wind energy in times where demand can’t keep up … [continued]
Germany has impressed many with its low cost solar electricity and substantial solar industry growth, both of which are unparalleled, even by countries with more readily available sunlight. The country which enjoys solar electricity at half the cost of the United States may implement an incentive to encourage the private … [continued]
Solar energy is a common method of clothes-drying in many parts of the world. However, hanging clothes on a line costs time, rather than money, and depends on the weather. The German company Miele has removed the weather and the extra time from the equation altogether by designing the world’s first solar-heated dryer.
It’s not uncommon to see incentives for buying an electric car, but owning one is another matter entirely.
Electric cars have many qualities making them attractive as urban commuter vehicles – particularly when driving through heavy traffic. The question of how an EV does on a longer road trip is one that does not as of yet have a definitive answer. France, for example, is installing charging stations on its highways, but that project isn’t finished.
