Via Hot Air an article by Bjorn Lomborg in Slate. It reviews the solar subsides Germany committed toward “green energy” and how that has worked out for them.
Lomborg points out that when the global warming scare was at its height, Germany bought in, hook, line and sinker. And, as is their way, decided they’d become the “photovoltaic world champion” as it switched to solar power.
How much did the German government commit to this pursuit of clean and green? $130 billion dollars.
What happened when this tax payer funded gravy train left the station?
Germans installed 7.5 gigawatts of photovoltaic capacity last year, more than double what the government had deemed “acceptable.” It is estimated that this increase alone will lead to a $260 hike in the average consumer’s annual power bill.
Because, you see, solar power is more expensive than that nasty fossil fuel generated energy. Details, details.
Anyway the government handed out $130 billion in subsides, German’s responded and the net result was a huge drop in greenhouse gasses, namely CO2, right? Yeah, not so much:
Moreover, this sizeable investment does remarkably little to counter global warming. Even with unrealistically generous assumptions, the unimpressive net effect is that solar power reduces Germany’s CO2 emissions by roughly 8 million metric tons—or about 1 percent – for the next 20 years. To put it another way: By the end of the century, Germany’s $130 billion solar panel subsidies will have postponed temperature increases by 23 hours.
Reality … what a slap in the face that must have been. Suddenly, the German government gets “religion”:
According to Der Spiegel, even members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s staff are now describing the policy as a massive money pit. Philipp Rösler, Germany’s minister of economics and technology, has called the spiraling solar subsidies a “threat to the economy.”
But, as usual, the German government had to learn this the hard way. Markets, we don’t need no stinkin’ markets. For a $130 billion dollar “investment”, Germany now gets 0.3% of its total power from solar. Any guess why governments should steer clear of picking winners and losers?
The German government has burned $130 billion to raise the average power bill by $260 a year and delay the dreaded temperature increases by … 23 hours.
Brilliant!
~McQ
Twitter: @McQandO
Hillclimber on February 22, 2012 at 1:35 pm said:
A magnificent country for manufacturing automobiles, they too have to learn that the world runs on petroleum, and all the wishful thinking and feel good policies and directions of the save the environment bunch doesn’t make wind and solar viable in large enough scale to have an impact. At least it seems they are learning..
Puti on November 17, 2012 at 8:03 pm said:
The harbor frgeiht type system is intended to charge a battery, and is low power. It’s good for experimenting, but is not very efficient, and not very powerful. I’ve seen an experimenter say that their 15-watt panel only gave him 5 watts in bright sunlight. If it’s the amorphous silicon thin film type of panel, it wears out quickly, dropping to a fraction of its original output in a few years.The $10,000 type whole house system usually has no batteries, and instead ties to the electric grid. There is generally a 10-year warranty on anything going wrong, and the panels themselves, the most expensive part of the system, have a performance warranty of 25 years. The nameplate rating on such a system may be 4000 watts, and you can actually expect to get at least 3400 watts, usually.Neither type of system is easily expandable. The big system can be made expandable later, but that involves spending money up front, and the final system will likely cost more than if the larger system was installed in the first place. An extra panel or two could be added to the small system, since it is generally underpowered anyway, but otherwise expansion means getting a completely new system and running it alongside the first.For ultimate cost effectiveness, the big system is maybe 1/8 the price of the smaller system, per watt.