PJ Media » Unreliable German Solar and Wind Forcing New Coal Boom.
If it were up to the majority of the German people, however, they would rather opt out and let someone else win. According to surveys, only 18 percent approve of the current energy policy. Sixty percent of Germans reject the push for so-called “green” energy if it leads to higher prices, and the same amount think it inevitably does.
They are correct: the electricity price in Germany has doubled between 2000 and 2013. It is now about three times pricier than electricity in the U.S. because staggering amounts of money were channeled into solar and windmill companies. Last year alone, German households paid 20 billion euros (27 billion USD) for a “renewable energies surcharge,” which amounts to 240 euros (325 USD) for every citizen. More than 100 billion euros have been sunk into solar energy, which is the least efficient source and contributes only four percent to German electricity production. Germany has as many solar panels as the rest of the world combined — in a country where the sky is usually overcast.
Outside of the urban areas, there are windmills everywhere. Residents complain about the destruction of the landscape, the health hazards of infrasound, and plummeting real estate prices.
Electricity prices rise further with every windmill and solar panel installation because of how the “renewable energies surcharge” is calculated. The law is based on the idea that the owner of a windmill or a solar panel deserves a fixed return on his investment. Owners are guaranteed a long-term feed-in tariff — which is way above the market price. The consequence has been a massive overbuilding of “renewables” at the expense of consumers (industrial companies with high electricity consumption are exempted from the surcharge). This has triggered a debate about families with low incomes who have to spend an ever-growing segment of their budget on electricity.
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