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Last year, Germany produced 161 billion kWh from renewable sources, or about 27% of electricity consumption. This year, thanks to rapid growth in solar and wind power, the country is on track to produce 193 billion kWh from renewable sources, or about 33% of total electricity consumption. That's grow of about 22% in just a year!
Though this is a preliminary estimate, on 31 October 2015 wind energy had already supplied 47% more electricity (63 billion kWh) that during the same time period in 2014.
Though the late autumn weather tends to be unpredictable, Germany's solar sector has already provided as much electricity during that 10 month period (35 billion kWh) as the whole of 2014.
Energy independence has real geopolitical implications for Germany vis-a-vis Russia.
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Tuesday November 10 2015, @02:17PM
I wonder how the post-scarcity people feel about this artificial creation of scarcity?
capitalism strikes again!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2015, @04:32PM
Actually in this case it's not capitalism. Quite the opposite: The German government managed to make a system where the end user prices go up when the prices of renewable energy go down.
How it works? Well, the basic idea is that they give the producers of renewable energy a guaranteed price. The difference to market prices is then passed on to the users of electricity, as an additional price component.
However in order to protect the energy-intensive industries, they made an exception for those: Those only have to pay the market price for electricity. So who does pay the difference? Exactly: The other electricity users. The cheaper renewable energy becomes, the greater is the difference, and the more expensive it gets for the normal electricity user.
(Score: 1) by angelosphere on Tuesday November 10 2015, @08:16PM
That is wrong.
I suggest to read the EEG (Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz) and watch the market more closely.
Energy prices are dropping for everyone.
The industry is not exempt from paying the true price.
The system works quite different than you imagine: grid operators are paying the feed in tariffs for renewable energy. So that defines the market price, mostly.
Private customers usually have fixed price contracts. Hence their energy bills don't fluctuate with the change at the market.
The industry is partly exempt from certain flat fees the rest of us are paying.
The cheaper renewable energy becomes, the greater is the difference, and the more expensive it gets for the normal electricity user.
No it does not. Year after year it gets cheaper for everyone. You really should check sometimes your energy bill.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 11 2015, @01:33AM
I suggest to read the EEG (Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz) and watch the market more closely.
I did. And one of the little things I noticed was that several countries around Germany have vastly cheaper electricity costs for residential electricity.
Energy prices are dropping for everyone.
I know this one weird trick for drop those energy prices fast.
(Score: 1) by angelosphere on Wednesday November 11 2015, @11:49PM
Most countries around Germany have not lower energy prices.
Perhaps you should look on a map which countries are around Germany?
On top of that: Germany is the only country in the EU where energy prices are dropping, thanx to renewables.
Also thanx for your uninformed opinion :)
We have learned to deal with those.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 12 2015, @12:29AM
Most countries around Germany have not lower energy prices.
Residential electricity prices not energy prices. Denmark is the only country with higher residential electricity prices. Germany doubled the cost of residential electricity to subsidize their renewable energy industry. As a result, they also ended up subsidizing electricity for industry.
(Score: 1) by angelosphere on Sunday November 15 2015, @10:46PM
Sorry, you are wrong.
Germany did not double the costs for electricity.
My bills are going down since two years, and before that it increased like 10€ from 125 to 135 per month.
No idea why idiotic foreigners who don't live in german and have no clue about german always want to place their uninformed oppinion upon people that actuall do live here.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday November 16 2015, @02:52AM
Germany did not double the costs for electricity.
From the link I provided [zerohedge.com] at the very beginning of this thread, German electricity prices for private consumers (residential) including taxes was 29.81 cents per KwH. For France, it was 15.85 cents per KwH. For Poland, it was 14.21 cents per KwH. I consider that link more informed than you are.
(Score: 1) by angelosphere on Thursday November 19 2015, @06:27PM
And I consider that link bollocks :)
(Score: 2) by khallow on Friday November 20 2015, @03:34AM
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Tuesday November 10 2015, @06:43PM
capitalism strikes again!
I have trouble seeing how this deliberate breaking of capitalism could be blamed on capitalism. It's like blaming high voltage gear for electrocuting someone while ignoring that the idiot just spent eight hours bypassing the safety mechanisms.