Sun and Wind Alter German Landscape, Leaving Utilities Behind

[nationalize the fed]

Berlin, Germany Coordinates: 52°31?N 13°23?E
That's 3.31 degrees north of the Northern Washington State border

JUSTIN GILLIS New York Times September 13, 2014

HELIGOLAND, Germany — Of all the developed nations, few have pushed harder than Germany to find a solution to global warming. And towering symbols of that drive are appearing in the middle of the North Sea.


Neuhardenberg Solar Park
52°36?50?N 14°14?33?E

They are wind turbines, standing as far as 60 miles from the mainland, stretching as high as 60-story buildings and costing up to $30 million apiece. On some of these giant machines, a single blade roughly equals the wingspan of the largest airliner in the sky, the Airbus A380. By year’s end, scores of new turbines will be sending low-emission electricity to German cities hundreds of miles to the south.


New wind turbines off Germany, where renewable energy is soaring and driving down prices. Credit Djamila Grossman for The New York Times

It will be another milestone in Germany’s costly attempt to remake its electricity system, an ambitious project that has already produced striking results: Germans will soon be getting 30 percent of their power from renewable energy sources. Many smaller countries are beating that, but Germany is by far the largest industrial power to reach that level in the modern era. It is more than twice the percentage in the United States.

Germany’s relentless push into renewable energy has implications far beyond its shores. By creating huge demand for wind turbines and especially for solar panels, it has helped lure big Chinese manufacturers into the market, and that combination is driving down costs faster than almost anyone thought possible just a few years ago.

Electric utility executives all over the world are watching nervously as technologies they once dismissed as irrelevant begin to threaten their long-established business plans...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/science/earth/sun-and-wind-alter-german-landscape-leaving-utilities-behind.html

Isn't it great that Victoria Nuland and Co. spent $5 BILLION DOLLARS ON UKRAINE. How many solar projects could that have funded? Taking money from The American People is like taking candy from babies. Why is that? What has happened? From Rebels to Slaves in less than 100 years. DisGusTing.

[newfie11]

1. We have to spend our money on missiles, bombs

And pouring billions back into the countries we've invades and destroyed.
Much of those billions never are used for rebuilding of course, they just change hands as payoffs.

As we get ready to destroy more ME countries ( to the delight of the MIC) Germany is pouring money into preserving the planet!

[n2doc]

2. Well, Somebody's gotta buy that Saudi Oil!

If we didn't need their oil, why would we bother intervening in the middle east? We might treat it like Africa, even.

[newfie11]

3. Why are we shipping gas out of the US

It makes no sense to me.

WSJ.com: U.S. refiners are exporting the American energy boom world-wide.

[nationalize the fed]

4. Brotherly Love is why

Maybe more than brotherly love, that might be what the 28 pages are about.
The proof is out there.

[newfie11]

5. Good luck

If they ever release those 28 pages they will be so redacted the only thing readable will be a . !

[Enthusiast]

10. We have to spend our money on missiles and bombs at the expense of millions of us

to the benefit of a very few.

This is what can be accomplished if you control the media and spend unlimited amounts on elections.

[newfie11]

12. +++infinity^^^^^^^^. Nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

6. "technologies they once dismissed as irrelevant"

To the shareholder class.

You know the types...

[zeemike]

7. From rebels to slaves.

that pretty much sums it up.

[HoosierCowboy]

8. Centralized Utilities will carry on...

...and be grateful that alternative energy will be filling the increased demand gap as we head into the Peak Oil era. Coal for electricity generation will go by the wayside for the simple reason that petroleum is needed to extract and transport it.
For the average coal burning utility the cost of transport actually exceeds the cost of the coal itself, the only reason it's still hanging on is that rail traffic was still down from the recession.
Given more demand for rail traffic, coal transport prices will rise and more utility executives and their accountants will see the light.
Given any more oil shocks and in consideration that that a sizable amount of petroleum is needed to get coal to the power plant, it's unlikely that any forward looking utility executives or their accountants will continue the folly of maintaining coal as a mainstay of production.
Simple Economics

[NickB79]

9. And yet, their CO2 emissions are rising, not falling

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-19/rising-german-coal-use-imperils-european-emissions-deal.html

The European Union’s attempt to cap greenhouse-gas emissions over the next 16 years is threatened again as rising pollution from the bloc’s biggest economies shows even developed nations want to burn cheap coal.

Germany, Europe’s largest economy, boosted consumption of the fuel by 13 percent in the past four years, while use in Britain, No. 3 in the region economically, rose 22 percent, statistics from oil company BP Plc show. While Germany pledged to cut heat-trapping gases 55 percent by 2030 from 1990 levels, it’s managed 25 percent so far and is moving in the wrong direction, according to the European Environment Agency.

One step forward, two steps back.

[hunter]

11. I don't reckon "alternative" energy schemes can support a high energy industrial consumer society.

Germany is probably not the place to look for answers. In consumer societies, especially where automobile use forms a significant fraction of the economy, wind and solar seem to be entirely supplemental to fossil fuel generation. They do not replace it. Energetically, even cars manufactured and operated using solar and wind power will be too expensive for the average person.

Instead of Germany and industrial Europe, we need to look at societies where people are generally happy, per capita carbon emissions are low, and populations are stable or declining because of voluntary birth control.

We must change the way we look at economics, how we define productivity, wealth, and efficiency.

Most of what we call "economic productivity" today is damaging to both the earth's natural environment and the human spirit.

I believe a low energy high technology society is possible without reverting to stereotypical "Amish" or "Luddite" lifestyles.