Energiewende

solar energy inspiration?

The German program was an inspiration to the crafters of Vermont’s May, 2009 feed-in tariff law, the energy-generation lynchpin of the state’s plan to use 90% renewables by 2050.[read more]

German energy subsidies

Could a German subsidy on energy storage replicate the German solar miracle for batteries instead? The launch and terms of a long-threatened energy storage subsidy are due to be introduced on May 1.[read more]

S. Kuelcue / Shutterstock.com

The German anti-nuclear movement is intimately linked to the peace movement, and managed to link the public’s fear of nuclear annihilation with questions about the civil use of nuclear energy.[read more]

German energy transition

Ever since the Fukushima catastrophe two years ago, Germans have redoubled their efforts to phase out of nuclear energy and fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy — called the “Energiewende” (energy transition) that began in 2000.[read more]

My conclusion so far is that unfortunately Germany’s ‘renewables revolution’ is at best making no difference to the country’s carbon emissions, and at worst pushing them marginally upwards. Thus, tens (or even hundreds, depending on who you believe) of billions of euros are being spent on expensive solar PV and wind installations for no...[read more]

German Solar via Shutterstock

Each year, since 1997, a meeting is held by the parties to the U.N.’s 1992 Treaty on Climate Change. The first meeting, COP-1, was in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. COP-18 in Doha, Qatar, in 2012, drew at least 10,000 attendees from around the world, for a 2-week period of conferences, at a total cost of about $250 million. As Qatar is...[read more]