Cloudy Germany unlikely hotspot for solar power - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Cloudy Germany unlikely hotspot for solar power
Sun Jul 29, 2007 8:05PM EDT

By Erik Kirschbaum

BONN, Germany (Reuters) - It rains year round in Germany.
Clouds cover the skies for about two-thirds of all daylight
hours. Yet the country has managed to become the world's
leading solar power generator.

Even though millions of Germans flee their damp, dark
homeland for holidays in the Mediterranean sun, 55 percent
of the world's photovoltaic (PV) power is generated on
solar panels set up between the Baltic Sea and the Black
Forest.

So far just 3 percent of Germany's electricity comes from
the sun, but the government wants to raise the share of
renewables to 27 percent of all energy by 2020 from
13 percent.

It is a thriving industry with booming exports that has
created tens of thousands of jobs in recent years, posting
growth rates that surpassed the optimistic forecasts made
by the fathers of a pioneering 2000 renewable energy law.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL2389939520070730

[Captain Angry]

1. Germany decided that it's kind of cool to have educated and employed people.

Stupid Europeans. When will they ever learn? The only way to have a strong economy is to offshore all of your manufacturing and technical jobs.

They'll never be as cool as the United States, a country that is becoming a theme park for the rich. We'll all have jobs selling hotdogs and carrying their luggage.

cough.

[Psephos]

2. German unemployment is almost 10%

And that's an improvement from where it's been for many years.

I'm not saying you're wrong or right, just saying that German unemployment has been structurally high for a long time, and it has caused a lot of problems.

Meanwhile, this is from the article:

At the heart of the scheme is a "feed-in tariff" giving anyone who generates power from solar PV, wind or hydro a guaranteed payment from the local power company. The power firms are obliged to buy solar electricity for 49 cents per kilowatt hour -- or nearly four times market rates.

So who reimburses the power company for having to buy electricity for four times more than the price at which they sell it? There are only two sources: customers, through higher overall rates, or government (which means customers, after paying taxes plus a cut for government to act as middleman). So, when you get to the bottom of it, people who can afford to erect solar panels are being paid by people who can't. Sounds regressive to me.

I love the idea of grassroots solar. I have a hard time seeing how this isn't a soak-the-poor scheme for doing it. I feel the same way about the tax write-off Prius buyers take. It must gall US autoworkers no end to know that part of their taxes from their endangered paychecks underwrites foreign car purchases at their expense.

[Captain Angry]

3. That is certainly true.

But I'll say two things.

1: They're encouraging hard science to create those kind of jobs in their country.
2: We're not.

Ok, three things.

3: If our unemployment numbers were accurate, I believe it is 10%+. I know too many people that lost their jobs to outsourcing. But in the government's eyes, if you run to McDonald's just to keep a paycheck coming in, you're employed, and not on the books.

[JDPriestly]

4. Lived in Europe a long time.

This is based on my experience some years ago:

European countries had a different attitude toward career and employment. If you were a trained as a teacher but couldn't find a job, for example, you were not expected to accept the first job that came your way. You were permitted and even expected to hold out for a teaching job. People in Germany or Austria especially spent more time preparing for their jobs. They entered into apprenticeships even to become sales clerks. They were more closely identified with their profession and did not switch professions as easily as Americans do. Their unemployment rates reflect that fact. If you are trained as a teacher, you probably won't get hired as a bus driver, for example. You can't compare their unemployment rates to ours.

[Psephos]

5. Interesting post n/t

[Kolesar]

6. Fair point on the Prius tax write off! ... eom

[phantom power]

7. 3% "solar" -----> 27% "renewable."

I've seen this non sequitor before. One sentence, they're talking about solar, the next it's "renewables."

I'm not sure what to make of it. Is it deliberate, or just more sloppy energy reporting?

[Bread and Circus]

8. Actually it's just you being a bit of a pill...

This is the sentence:

So far just 3 percent of Germany's electricity comes from
the sun, but the government wants to raise the share of
renewables to 27 percent of all energy by 2020 from
13 percent.

for more emphasis:

..to 27 percent of all energy by 2020 from
13 percent.

for even more emphasis:

from 13 percent.

What part of 13 don't you understand?

They want to raise the share of renewables from 13% to 27% of all energy by 2020...

Do you not know how to read a sentence or are you just being willfully obtuse?

[phantom power]

9. Oh, could be me not knowing how to read a scentence...

[Bread and Circus]

10. apparently so

[phantom power]

11. Seriously, I misread the sentence. My bad.