I have two major stories out of Germany to report, one on the rise of Climate Skepticism into the mainstream, as Germany’s Top Environmentalist Turns Climate Sceptic, saying
“I couldn’t take it any more. I had to write this book.”
Doubt came two years ago when he was an expert reviewer of an IPCC report on renewable energy. “I discovered numerous errors and asked myself if the other IPCC reports on climate were similarly sloppy.”
….and the other major story is on the failure of solar and wind power in Germany. First, the mainstream skepticism:
Body Blow To German Global Warming Movement! Major Media Outlets Unload On “CO2 Lies!”
Excerpts reposted from NoTricksZone by Pierre Gosselin
Today Germany’s national tabloid Bild (which has a whopping circulation of 16 million) devoted half of page 2 on an article called:.
“THE CO2 LIES … pure fear-mongering … should we blindly trust the experts?”
That’s what Germany’s leading daily Bild (see photo) wrote in its print and online editions today, on the very day that renowned publisher Hoffmann & Campe officially released a skeptic book – one written by a prominent socialist and environmental figure.
This is huge. More than I ever could have possibly imagined. And more is coming in the days ahead! The Bild piece was just the first of a series.
Mark this as the date that Germany’s global warming movement took a massive body blow.
Today, not one, but two of Germany’s most widely read news media published comprehensive skeptical climate science articles in their print and online editions, coinciding with the release of a major climate skeptical book, Die kalte Sonne (The Cold Sun).
Germany has now plunged into raucous discord on the heated topic of climate change
What has set it all off? One of the fathers of Germany’s modern green movement, Professor Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt, a social democrat and green activist, decided to author a climate science skeptical book together with geologist/paleontologist Dr. Sebastian Lüning. Vahrenholt’s skepticism started when he was asked to review an IPCC report on renewable energy. He found hundreds of errors. When he pointed them out, IPCC officials simply brushed them aside. Stunned, he asked himself, “Is this the way they approached the climate assessment reports?”
Vahrenholt decided to do some digging. His colleague Dr. Lüning also gave him a copy of Andrew Montford’s The Hockey Stick Illusion. He was horrified by the sloppiness and deception he found. Well-connected to Hoffmann & Campe, he and Lüning decided to write the book. Die kalte Sonne cites 800 sources and has over 80 charts and figures. It examines and summarizes the latest science.
Conclusion: climate catastrophe is called off
The science was hyped. The book started hitting the bookshops today and has already hit no. 1 on the Amazon.de list for environment books. Indications show that it will climb very high in the overall bestseller charts. It’s published by a renowned publishing house and is now sending shock waves through the German climate science establishment. The first printing will produce 20,000 copies. I expect they will sell out rather quickly.
Read it all here.
=============================================================
While all that is happening, the wind is going out of the sails in the highly subsidized solar and windfarm business in Germany. Michael Limburg writes from Germany that:
We published this very comprehensive study from our author Dr. Günter Keil titled “ Germany´s Green Energy Supply Transformation Has Already Failed”. (http://www.eike-klima-energie.eu/news-cache/germanys-green-energy-supply-transformation-has-already-failed/)
German version here: http://www.eike-klima-energie.eu/climategate-anzeige/die-energiewende-ist-schon-gescheitert-mit-update-4112/
It has won a lot of attention and was published in all german speaking sceptic blogs and is as well most regarded by our politicians.
Since a lot of green zealots in all countries praise Germany as the wonderland of manageable green miracles it might be helpful to show them the reality
I am therefore proud and happy to tell you that we managed to translate this very valuable piece of information which reveals the blindness and fanaticism of our present politicians which destroys willingly the backbone of our economy. Please make best use of it. I am sure you will welcome this information. The full report and the press release are attached.
Here is the English version:
Germany’s Green Energy Supply Transformation Has Already Failed!
Energy expert Dr. Guenter Keil has closely examined Germany’s energy policy of shifting away from nuclear and fossil fuels and over to renewables. What he finds is a bleak picture. Years ago Germany ambitiously embarked on transforming its energy supply system, and hopes to supply at least 80% of its energy needs through renewable energies by 2050, and thus become a moral leader on environmental responsibility for the rest of the world.
To do this, the former Socialist-Green coalition government, led by Gerhard Schröder, enacted the so-called Renewable Energy Feed-In Act (EEG) in 2000. This Feed-In Act requires electric utilities to buy all renewable energies, such as solar and wind power, from all producers at fixed, exorbitant rates and to feed it into the power grid for a period of 20 years. This has led to a boom as thousands of homeowners, businesses, and investors have installed thousands of megawatts of solar and wind power capacity over the years. The current Conservative-Liberal government, not to be outdone by its predecessor, is also gleefully pushing the Feed-In Act to the limit.
Weather-dependent supply wreaking havoc on the power grid
The problem is that these energy sources are weather-dependent and thus their sporadic supply is starting to wreak havoc on Germany’s power grid and is even now threatening to destabilize power grids all across Europe. The other problem: the power grid needed to distribute the decentrally produced green power is simply not there yet. They forgot to build it! So far, after tens of billions of euros spent on renewable energy systems and higher prices for consumers, not a single coal or gas-fired power plant has been taken offline. To the contrary, old inefficient plants have been brought back into service in an effort to stabilize the grid.
In a panic reaction, Germany shut down 8 nuclear power plants
To make matters worse, in a fit of panic and hysteria, the German government shut down 8 of its older 18 nuclear reactors in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, thus removing a very cheap and stable supply of power and further pushing the grid to the limits. Before the shutdown of the nuclear reactors, Germany had been a net power exporter; today it is a net power importer and is at times severely straining neighboring power grids. To compensate for the missing nuclear power, the government is now heavily promoting even more weather-dependent wind power, which is further destabilizing the German and European power grids. A solution to the problem of storing electricity is still at least a generation away.
The question of course is how could such absurd decisions have been made to begin with? Were there no experts involved in the planning of the new power generation infrastructure? The answer obviously is no. Power executives are viewed as evil, dirty and greedy polluters, and thus were never really consulted. They could not be counted on to give the politically correct solutions. Therefore the decision to shut down the German nuclear power plants and to massively support renewables was done unilaterally by the government, without consulting the power executives or even neighboring countries.
Offshore wind parks, but no transmission lines to industrial regions!
Now that the damage is spreading, Germany’s utilities are now struggling to keep the grid stable and to fill in the power gap left by the shut-down of nuclear reactors. To do this the German government has ordered the installation of large-scale wind parks in the North and Baltic seas, in addition to the re-commissioning of mothballed, inefficient coal-fired plants. This overall energy production transition from nuclear and fossils over to “renewables” is dubbed by German officials as the Energy Supply Transformation. Construction of the offshore wind parks is now progressing rapidly. But there’s just one problem: the huge high voltage power transmission lines needed to bring their power to Germany’s industrial heartland to the south are missing! More than 3000 km of these lines are needed, but are nowhere near in sight. The government forgot about those too!
Activists groups blocking grid expansion
Building the power transmission lines quickly across the landscape will be a virtually impossible task. Activist groups have long since organized and are effectively blocking their approval and construction. So far only a measly 214 km have been built. As a result, surplus wind power cannot be delivered to the markets, and thus either has to be destroyed, dumped on the market at “negative prices”, or wind park owners are simply ordered to stop generating. No problem though – paragraph 12 of Germany’s Energy Feed-In Act requires electric utilities to pay for the electricity that they ask not to have produced! Technically, there is an incentive for wind parks to destabilize the grid.
Eventually all these costs add up and in the end they get passed along to the consumer. Under the bottom line, consumers have to pay more and more, and for a lower and lower quality supply. German industry is getting nervous and surveys show that many are leaving Germany, or are planning to do so. They no longer view Germany’s power supply as reliable.
In a death spiral…”will fail spectacularly”
Dr. Guenter Keil’s report focusses in detail on the amazing absurdities of Germany’s Renewable Energy Feed-In Act and the country’s utopian Energy Transformation. The government, through intrusive meddling and ballooning bureaucracy, has maneuvered Germany’s energy supply system into a vicious death spiral: the more the government intervenes, the greater the mess becomes. And the greater the mess becomes, the more the government intervenes! Dr. Keil concludes:
“Germany’s energy transformation has already failed. For Germans, the outlook is bleak. …the planned mismanagement is heavily damaging the economy and will fail spectacularly some years later because its economic and social costs will have become unbearable. The question remaining open is how many billions of euros will have to be destroyed before a new energy policy (a new energy transformation?) picks up the shattered pieces.”
So it’s no wonder that according to a survey of experts from 21 national committees by the World Energy Council, 0% said they could imagine their own country completely taking over the German political approach. An equal number believe Germany will reach its stated targets.
Germany’s model will serve as a classic lesson on how not to handle energy production and management.
Michael Limburg; with thanks to Pierre Gosselin from notrickszone for excellent translation support
Dr. Guenter Keil was a scientific employee at the Technical University of Munich / Fraunhofer Society, as well as Project Support at the Federal Research Ministry.
For downloading full 
report & 
press release here or see files attached (remark: Downloads of .doc pressrelease with SAFARI seems not to work, FIRFOX workfs fine)
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I dearly hope that the Germans will now turn their wonderful engineering prowess to making nuclear energy acceptable in their own country. If they can do that, they will have a product that will sell all over the world. I for one, am seriously concerned about the influence we are giving the Russians over our energy supply. In choice lies strength.
This is big news since this is MSM and it is in print not merely online. German politics has been heavily dominated by the Green movement for many decades so this goes right to the heart of political debate in Germany. One should not under-estimate the effect that this breaking news will have in Germany, the shock waves of which will be felt across Europe.
Germany is the industrial power house of Europe. One of the most fundamental resources required by any industry is cheap and reliable energy. In the past, most heavy industry was sited next to coal fields for this very reason.
Germany is therefore an energy intensive user. It is imperative to its continued prosperity that it can draw upon cheap and reliable energy.
As we all know, renewables are heavily subsidised and it is the poor that bear the brunt of this subsidy. On an European scale, it is the poorer nations (the Club Med) who have been effectively subsidising German renewable energy. Germany has been able to run a healthy trade balance surplus, but only because the poorer Club Med nations have been able to afford to buy German products. With the collapse of the economies in the Club Med nations, they will be unable to buy (or at any rate buy as much) German manufactured products. This means that German industry will find it difficult to pass on the high costs associated with green renewable energy to the mass market of the Club Med nations and this will put a severe strain on German industry. For the ordinary Germans, this will be a double whammy since they are already being expected to bail out the Club Med economies but now they will also begin to feel the additional costs associated with green renewables. This is bound to have a serious impact on the German economy and on German politics.
The gut reaction to the Japanese disaster of last year was not well thought through. The closure of so many nuclear power stations (with no proper programme in place for their substitution) was madness. The effect of this madness would have been seen much sooner but for the general economic slow down. It will however be felt since there is no quick fix to mass energy production.
Solar has no place in a country such as German due to its high latitude and because of cloudiness. Wind, as we all know, is far too intermittent to form the base load of an energy supply system. The short coming of both these systems should be obvious to a school child so when the Sh** hits the fan, there will be questions asked as to how the political masters fell for this hype. I think that the public back lash will be severe to such an obviously flawed programme
the CEOs at RWE and E.ON are like any big company CEOs just paper tigers and clueless politicians really. If they are good at anything it is at playing golf.
That said there areplenty of directors and experts at these companies that know very well the absurdity of windmills.
But guess what? for them the “investment” just means more work more people to be hired more problems to be solved more water to row in. Why would they risk their careers complaining about what is at heart an assault on the purse of the electricity consumer. they all get a stiff bonus at the end of the year instead.
LEt it all get more and more expensive..it is better to be a carier of diamonds than a carier of water. Thats the philosophy.
The energy poor will soon need help to pay their heating bills. No problem other people’s money will be used for that.
I do not think that anyone in the brainwashing complex, say the editorial boards of ZDF, Das Zweite Deutsche Funknetz, will suffer financially.
OK, I’ll bite. How could this looming catastrophe happen?
Government selling out it’s role in providing critical services (a stable electricity supply is critical). In doing so it loses in-house technical expertise. After some years that then results in an inability to assess and plan and regulate the private sector and so government becomes dependent on consultants and lobbyists. At the fundamental basis of civilisation are critical functions which should not be divested from government: security, energy, clean water, basic health care, basic education, basic insurance and basic social security (there are no doubt others). Not all unconditionally free, but as guaranteed availability for plain vanilla varieties. The free market should be used wherever possible because competition is undoubtedly generally good and can certainly keep government lean and honest. But you can’t ignore the flip side of free enterprise: risk from charlatans and privateers in the form of corner-cutting and even outright exploitation. Situations that are prone to monopolisation need care.
Had more governments been involved in the nuts and bolts of energy production and supply the insanity of subsidisation could never have been considered. Follow the money taxpayers, you’ve been robbed, and in many countries will continue to be robbed for some time to pay for the scam. Yep, I think there will be class actions – in both directions. As always, it’s the lawyers and the banks that really win!
R. Gates says:
February 6, 2012 at 6:09 pm
When in reality, R., you’ve broken into a sweat because the Big Scam called Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming is about to be exposed EVERYWHERE–from Germany to the rest of Europe, and from there to the rest of the world. Oh, Happy Day!
You really are a slick propagandist, R., just like the Soviet Union and the propaganda they spewed before the inevitable breakup of that BIG LIE. But you only fool yourself–those of us that lived through the Cold War (and now the Warm War of CAGW on the planet’s inhabitants) can see you coming a mile away.
Time to give it up, R. It isn’t working any more! Your side with their incestuous “climate scientists” (“climsci” for short) are losing their fraudulent footing and thinking people (well, and even “useful tools” who looked up to “authority” and “experts”) are finally being told what they’ve felt in their gut all along–that CO2 is NOT the culprit.
But people like you ARE!
Do you really sleep well at night knowing what you know yet keep doing what you do? Only if you don’t have a conscience. (The pay must be pretty good.)
Peter Miller says:
February 7, 2012 at 1:17 am
Speaking of “PIIGS”, the new slogan is now:
PIIGS R US…
Meaning the US of A has now joined the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain–countries with debt/GDB greater than 100%)!
looks like google trying to massively supress this story LOL BTW why dont you keep important postings on top based on number of comments etc. It a bit annoying to be involved in a major story and then see it wiped away by a minor one. Just my point of view sorry…
Fritz Vahrenholt could just as well be called a top manager from Shell and RWE (one of the largest electricity firms in Europe). And the Bild Zeitung is something like USA Today, a newspaper for paper who are barely able to read. The headline yesterday was a new diet plan.
A theory that needs such supporters is lying on the ground.
A blog that does not mention such information is not trying to tell you the truth. Please also read alternative information sources if you are interested in the truth.
Regarding German forests. I grew up in West Virginia, surrounded by forests, but then spent two years in Germany. Every time I happened by a forest there (I spent most of my time in cities) I was struck by how neat and orderly everything was. The trees were all in rows, like soldiers in formation, and there was very little undergrowth. I often said to myself, “This ain’t like the woods back home.” I didn’t get it then, but after reading comments by DirkH here, maybe I understand it now.
Two US Senators have introduced the Energy Freedom and Economic Prosperity Act, which would end all energy-specific tax credits.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/erikajohnsen/2012/02/06/glorious_an_energy_bill_to_end_all_energy_tax_credits
Let’s see if it has any traction.
@thedetroiter
Many green activists become lobbyists for big companies in later life. No contradiction there.
thedetroiter says:
Bull[snip] such as this?
Translation: “Climate Protection: So it’s up to us Germans to save the world? We mustn’t even use the plane to go on holiday!”
Translation: “Secret Climate Report: We have only 13 years to save the world!”
The news isn’t so much what’s written in the article. The news is that a mainstream climate alarmist tabloid is changeing sides. It’s a political signal.
The BBC (I know, but this is just a news report) has this on gas supply problems in Italy:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16919998
Basically, Russia is reducing supplies to Europe as demand has risen domestically and Italy imports 90% of it’s gas with 30% of that from Russia. Reading a little bit between the lines, the Italians (along with much of Europe) switched oil and coal fired generation to gas and are now struggling when there is high demand. According to ENI (the state electricity generating company) “We won’t have problems until Wednesday,” – what a way to inspire confidence! They are cutting electricity to industry just to try and keep consumers warm.
[@moderators: please omit my previous identical post with the non-working image links and use this one instead]
thedetroiter says:
Oh, as an addition: even here in Germany we know not to trust anything the BILD writes. Most of you won’t understand the BILDblog, but its mission is to debunk their bullshit.
Bullshit such as this?
http://www.bildblog.de/wp-content/fliegen.jpg
Translation: “Climate Protection: So it’s up to us Germans to save the world? We mustn’t even use the plane to go on holiday!”
http://www.energieverbraucher.de/files_db/Wir-haben-noch-13-Jahre-500.jpg
Translation: “Secret Climate Report: We have only 13 years to save the world!”
Before using a BILD article as a basis for an argument, thing again. Next time maybe just enjoy the naked ladies and move on.
The news isn’t so much what’s written in the article. The news is that a mainstream climate alarmist tabloid is changeing sides. It’s a political signal.
Those who have commented on Bild-Zeitung – yes it’s about as trustworthy as the National Enquirer. But in this case – read the GWPF link! The say that the print edition of Focus also features an article about Die kalte Sonne. I’m neither German nor living in Germany, so I can’t vouch for Focus either, but I certainly regard it as more trustworthy than Bild. In fact, I think I’m going to take a short break and go out and buy a copy of Focus right now…
It was the Pommy mainstream media beat them to it-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2093264/Forget-global-warming–Cycle-25-need-worry-NASA-scientists-right-Thames-freezing-again.html
Not that that’s anything to brag about given their past record but the snowball is beginning to gather momentum and you get the electric feeling all over that there’s an avalanche of shock and anger building which will sweep all the charlatans and carpet-baggers away. I reckon the angriest will be real scientists who have had to bite their tongues and take a backseat to these political scientists and quacks that have spread like cancer throughout our learning institutions. The signs are everywhere that they’re bloody angry at what’s happened to science and they aren’t going to take it any longer-
http://www.smh.com.au/national/tertiary-education/scientists-urge-unis-to-axe-alternative-medicine-courses-20120125-1qhtm.html
This is the breathtaking stuff of the Berlin Wall and Arab dictators collapsing.
Victor Venema says:
February 7, 2012 at 6:03 am
Please also read alternative information sources if you are interested in the truth.
Yes.
“thedetroiter says:
February 7, 2012 at 3:25 am
Vahrenholt was a lobbyist for Shell and responsible for “improving their public image””
So is Phil Jones of CRU. Funny that, isn’t it?
And to the occupiers of the Fourth Estate, the best advice I can give right now is to earn your bloody paychecks with real research and proper questions you lazy bunch of sycophantic press release and spin regurgitators because you’ve been snowed big time. Not so some intrepid reporters that had their heads screwed on all along-
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/bureau_predicts_we_wont_remember_its_last_prediction/
anorak2 says:
February 7, 2012 at 6:36 am
“Before using a BILD article as a basis for an argument, thing again. Next time maybe just enjoy the naked ladies and move on.”
If you think left-of-centre media are more trustworthy (an opinion I don’t share, they just disguise their agenda with some faux intellectuality), just buy the latest Spiegel which has a fair interview with Vahrenholt. Der Spiegel obviously looks for a new narrative, as even they can’t shift units with CAGW anymore.
morgo says:
February 7, 2012 at 12:44 am
please can some body in germany send the book to Gilliard prime minister of australia
=================
why?
the daft ***** wouldnt read it anyway, shes pre programmed for destroying our country..its the right thing to do you know…
best use and I hope its big and heavy,,,,would be for whacking her over the head with it!
and flim fannery as well,
I have sent the link to my fave pollie though so lets hope they use it in Q time to embarass the hell outta the greenlabor dipsh*ts
Rocky Road says:
Great one.
Victor Venema says:
February 7, 2012 at 6:03 am
“Please also read alternative information sources if you are interested in the truth.”
We do (like this most excellent blog) but, from your tone, I doubt that you do regarding your own beliefs. Pot, kettle, black etc., the usual spiel.
I have posted a second article on Dr. Habibullo Abdussamatov, Dr. Sc.
Head of Space Research Laboratory of the Pulkovo Observatory,
Head of the Russian/Ukrainian Joint Project Astrometria:
“Bicentennial Decrease of the Total Solar Irradiance Leads to Unbalanced Thermal Budget of the Earth and the Little Ice Age”.
“From early 90s we observe bicentennial decrease in both the TSI and the portion of its energy absorbed by the Earth.
The Earth as a planet will henceforward have negative balance in the energy budget which will result in the temperature drop in approximately 2014.
Due to increase of albedo and decrease of the greenhouse gases atmospheric concentration the absorbed portion of solar energy and the influence of the greenhouse effect will additionally decline.
The influence of the consecutive chain of feedback effects which can lead to additional drop of temperature will surpass the influence of the TSI decrease.
The onset of the deep bicentennial minimum of TSI is expected in 2042±11, that of the 19th Little Ice Age in the past 7500 years – in 2055±11.”
http://www.oarval.org/ClimateChangeBW.htm