After decades and hundreds of billions of dollars, how much of Germany’s energy is supplied by its solar and wind? Based on data from International Energy Agency, here is its latest report with slightly older data: http://bit.ly/1jG8YQu
In that report they say:
In order to achieve the ambitious energy transformation set out in the Energiewende, by 2030 half of all electricity supply will come from renewable energy sources; Germany must continue to develop cost-effective market-based approaches which will support the forecasted growth of variable renewable generation. Furthermore, the costs and benefits need to be allocated in a fair and transparent way among all market participants, especially households.
They have a very, very long way to go to reach 50% penetration at the current rate of implementation at ~15%. The 2030 goal is a pipe dream.
And who in there right mind wants 50% of their electricity supply based on intermittent sources? If the sun is obscured by clouds and the wind doesn’t blow, that 50% can quickly shrink to just a few percent on the vagaries of wind and weather. The whole concept is flawed, IMHO.
@knutesea
…I’d be interested to know who scientists think are the top 3 scientists of the past 200 years.
It would offer insight into what their profession values…
The past 200 years contain Faraday, Darwin, James Clark Maxwell, Louis Pasteur and Einstein. I should think that any such list will include at least 2 out of those. Interesting that they were all born in the 1800s…
Paul Dirac – 20th century …
a minor trend perhaps ?
mathematicians and those devoted to the trial and error of the experimental process
I’m hoping someone can do the sums and tell me what the true cost of that 2.8% of renewable energy is – and I mean capital cost + subsidies + operating costs = in $/kWhr per average output.
Suming the tariff (>price) paid for “renewables” is one thing, computing the effect of unjust “regulation” is another.
What is the impact of priority access to grid? It depends on the whole system.
Not to mention past investment and wacky regulations put on the suppliers.
PG&E Files for Bankruptcy / $9 billion in debt, firm abandons bailout talks with state
But the move could lead to substantially higher rates for consumers if a bankruptcy judge places PG&E’s $9 billion in debt obligations on ratepayers.
On investors: Trading in PG&E stock was halted before the bankruptcy action was announced. After trading resumed, the company’s stock fell 36 percent and closed at $7.20 a share.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/PG-E-Files-for-Bankruptcy-9-billion-in-debt-2933945.php
Baoding Tianwei Group Co.’s default on an onshore bond, the first by a state-owned company in China, exposes the toll a glut of solar manufacturing has inflicted on some of the smallest and financially weakest producers.
China South Industries Group Corp. failed to pay 85.5 million yuan ($13.8 million) of bond interest due Tuesday, Baoding Tianwei said in a statement posted to Chinamoney.com.cn, the China Foreign Exchange Trade System website. The company “suffered huge losses in 2014 and the debt-to-asset ratio surged quickly,” the Chinese maker of power transformers said in the statement.
Suntech Power Holdings Co. and LDK Solar Co., once the biggest solar manufacturers, both filed for bankruptcy after failing to repay debts. Leshan Ledian Tianwei Silicon Science & Technology Co. and Xinguang Silicon, units of affiliate Baoding Tianwei Baobian Electric Co., halted production in 2011 to reduce losses and operating costs as the domestic polysilicon industry idled about 30 percent of output. The two units collapsed last year. Baoding Tianwei Group reported an operating loss of 1.14 billion yuan in 2014, mainly related to new energy activities. The net loss totaled 10.1 billion yuan after the company recognized 8.34 billion yuan in impairment provisions.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-22/baoding-tianwei-default-exposes-weaknesses-in-china-solar-sector
Low prices due to under pricing the value and bankrupting Chinese makers. Less supply with steady demand will lead to higher prices (Econ 101).
The people in the EU no longer have any say in their lives and their appointed “government” has been lying to them all along. It’s not about a better life, it’s all about a measured life taken to the lowest common denominator. The uncontrolled mad dash for renewable power is bankrupting their economies, devastating their lifestyles, and their leaders are proud of it. Since when did freedom and self determination become dirty words?
It gets cold in Germany during the Winter. A lot of that is due to the reduction in Sun light. Not to worry, though, people will heat their homes with solar generated electricity–with, possibly a little backup from wind.
Imagine yourself as ruler of a northern European country.
Now imagine you have to plan energy policy for your peeps, would you worry about an ensuing cold or some minor and tenuous warming ? According to the ice core temp patterns, they are far more at risk of an ensuing cold climate than runaway warming.
Reckless management.
The other day over on LinkedIn, Bill Gates posted a eutopian eulogy about how nice it would be if our power came only from wind and solar.
Here is my comment I posted in reply:
Thanks Bill. Nuclear is the key to a low carbon economy without having to go back to the jungle. I mean 4th generation nuclear, not prehistoric pressurised water reactors. If we allow it to, nuclear can give us sustainable and clean energy while still having democracy and the rule of law, not losing all our knowledge, literature art and music (and computers with their need of operating systems 🙂 not running round in grass skirts stabbing eachother with sharpened wooden sticks, having a life expectancy more than 20 years. Wind and solar are not – they are a road to nowhere. Unpredictable intermittent power is worse than useless. Nuclear is the key to the future. Wind and solar will only power us back to the stone age.
Many CAGW spinsters are Nuke MSR supporters. If I gave them total “i am not worthy” praise, I’d say they planned it from the beginning. What has happened is that their allegiance with the fringe environmental groups is coming back to bite them. Strange bedfellows.
The greatest loss will be that China will be the first to have them.
They will build them.
We will buy them.
Now THAT makes me want to moan in the night.
“E.M.Smith December 10, 2015 at 9:47 am
Political “science” majors and community organizers are horrid businessmen ”
Indeed, and so are “the elite”, i.e., the wealthy who got there by inheritance (as opposed to entrepreneurs).
Sure, there are some exemptions, but for the most part, once the third generation comes along, they forget where the money came from. That’s why we see “foundations”, which is really tax-evading, or money laundering in less-polite terms, whose money was made from what they now would call “bad stuff”, spending money on “good stuff”.
See: Prince Charles, idiocy of, (multiple cites).
And thus easy prey for the conman wielding false guilt.
If you live long enough, all these little wisdoms begin to make sense.
Post WWII children (depression babies) made children who now have children that are easy prey detached from reality.