german official: renewable energy beats forecasts

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_ENERGY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-10-29-10-07-08

BERLIN (AP) -- The production of renewable energies in Germany is expected to grow faster than the government's forecast and account for almost half of the country's electricity within a decade, a top official said Monday.

The current boom in new installations of wind, solar and other renewable power sources will easily top the official target of 35 percent by 2022, reaching about 48 percent by then, said Stephan Kohler, who heads the government-affiliated agency overseeing Germany's electricity grid.

"I think this is a realistic dimension," Kohler said. "By then we can manage to integrate it in our electricity grid."

He cautioned, however, that his Federal Network Agency's assessment shows that more and swifter investment is needed to upgrade the electricity grid to cope with the influx of unstable and geographically dispersed renewable energies.

[JackN415]

1. And in the US, the conservatives attack one symbolic thing like Solyndra...

Industrial policy is not always perfect, but sometimes can be necessary.

All other advanced economies have some degree of industrial policy regarding renewable energy. Germany, Japan, UK, France, Italy, other EUs, Korea, ...

China bet their future on green technology and renewable energy. They subsidized their solar industry to the tune of >$20 B to the point that Chinese companies cannibalize each other.

For every industrial policy, mistakes are made as a part of the deal. No investment portfolio is 100%. Win some, lose some. It's about the overall batting average.

Solyndra is just one, partially because of China's competition with their $20 B subsidy.

And becomes the fodder for the near-sighted conservatives to attack.

[limpyhobbler]

2. America is falling behind because the fossil fuel industry has captured the government.

[CRH]

3. Germany, an advanced economy and society, ...

demolishes the lie, renewables can't make a difference in first world countries. Just think if all advanced economies invested in these technologies now, how the price of conversion would plummet, as would the stock prices and influence of fossil fuel power conglomerates.

What Germany has done in not so many years, illustrates how twisted US politics throttle the future of the economy and society.

[mrf901]

5. German style electricity, everybody wins.

the electric producers get to supply
their customers with green, modern electricity.

the consumers get to pay twice as much
as their counterparts in the US

[NickB79]

4. Not if their neighbors follow through with their plans to stop regional grid collapse

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112726607

Germany is dumping electricity on its unwilling neighbors and by wintertime the feud should come to a head.

Central and Eastern European countries are moving to disconnect their power lines from Germany’s during the windiest days. That’s when they get flooded with energy, echoing struggles seen from China to Texas over accommodating the world’s 200,000 windmills.

...

The problem may intensify with the approaching winter. With an insufficient north-south connection, Germany’s power network came close to a collapse last February when high winds in the Baltic sea flooded it with power and the Czech Republic and Poland threatened to disconnect their grids. The coming winter can be critical, German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler said last week.

...

Both Poland and the Czech Republic are planning to install so-called phase-shifter transformers in the trans-border area with Germany to regulate power flows and protect their transmission networks. While the Czechs are still negotiating with Germany on other short-term solutions and pushing for a creation of smaller power-trading areas with realistic capacity allocation, they’re already counting on installing four transformers by 2017, CEPS said.

“The Germans are using our infrastructure in an excessive manner,” CEPS board member Zbynek Boldis said in an interview in Prague. “At this point they’re getting a free lunch.”

I'd suggest that the Germans need to invest in MASSIVE energy storage systems, pronto.