Reply #5: You're a bit confused.

[Yo_Mama]

I feel somewhat detached emotionally from the process, probably because I was struggling cognitively to absorb some of the more technical details about the line transmission into which I stumbled.

No, I am not hoping anything. I am intensely curious as to what they will work out. Germany has put a lot of money and considerable technical creativity into their effort to develop low carbon energy generation. Because they are further ahead with the process, they are dealing with a bunch of legal and engineering issues that our country has not yet begun to address.

For instance, even a few months ago the very controversial CCS initiative seemed likely to be legislatively sidelined, but now maybe not:
http://www.germanenergyblog.de/?p=6738

The German public wants no nukes. It wants reliable electricity. It wants environmentally clean sources of energy. It wants not to pay too much for energy. These desires are going to have to be balanced out. The costs of what they are doing are a real factor in public acceptance:
http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/12/20/germanys-renewable-energy-costs-threaten-public-support-zew-center-says/
http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/ElectricPower/8074895

Even the Green party has been squawking about the price increases:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6079262,00.html
Costs were a factor even before the nuclear shutdown:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-04/merkel-s-nuclear-embrace-earns-derision-as-german-clean-power-costs-climb.html
Note that costs were estimated at 22.9 cents (euro cents) per kwh in January.
As of April, it was up to the 24/25 cent range:
http://www.energy.eu/#Domestic

The whole CCS struggle alone is very interesting, and I can't help but believe that the compromises that Germany works out are going to be highly relevant to other countries.