Can't upset the coal barons ... especially the old parties, since they rely on the hand outs.

____ wrote on Jul 6^th, 2012 at 1:08pm:

Isn't the coal-ition of labor/greens handing money to big coal.

Solar subsidies cost German consumers billions of dollars a year and are widely regarded as inefficient. Even environmentalists are concerned that Berlin's focus on solar comes at the detriment of other renewables. But the solar industry has a powerful lobby, and politicians have proven powerless to resist.

Germans already pay the second highest energy prices in Europe. Next year, a three-person family will likely have to pay up to an additional €175 ($220) to finance the construction of renewable energy infrastructure.

subsidies for renewable energy, including an expansion of the power grid, will saddle energy consumers with costs well over €300 billion ($377 billion).

Photovoltaics are threatening to become the costliest mistake in the history of German energy policy. Photovoltaic power plant operators and homeowners with solar panels on their rooftops are expected to pocket around €9 billion ($11.3 billion) this year, yet they contribute barely 4 percent of the country's power supply, and only erratically at that.

When night falls, all solar modules go offline in one fell swoop; in the winter, they barely generate power during the daytime. During the summer, meanwhile, they sometimes generate too much power around midday, without enough storage capacity to capture it all. The distribution network is also not laid out in a way that would allow the country's thousands of owners of photovoltaic arrays -- a term used to denote an installation of several panels working together -- to feed into the grid as well as draw power from it.

To keep the lights on, Germany ends up importing nuclear power from France and the Czech Republic. Grid operator Tennet even resorted to tapping an aging fossil fuel-fired power plant in Austria to compensate for shortages in solar power.




http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-solar-subsidies-to-remain-high-with-consumers-paying-the-price-a-842595.html


Green power might end up sending them down the shite chute with Spain.

Sir lastnail wrote on Jul 6^th, 2012 at 12:42pm:


for 30 years I have been told "when solar power becomes cheaper.......", it's STILL being subsidised.

Wind farms make nearby residents sick due to the noise/pressure waves.

Doctor Jolly wrote on Jul 6^th, 2012 at 1:10pm:


yes but the second time it took the rest of the planet to defeat them

nairbe wrote on Jul 6^th, 2012 at 2:23pm:


that's because we are the clever country and sport and gambling is much more important than technological innovation