http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2015/01/2014-pivotal-year-for-germanys-energiewende?cmpid=WNL-Wednesday-January21-2015
[links in on-line article]
2014 Was a Pivotal Year for Germany's Energiewende
Paul Hockenos
January 20, 2015
What a difference a year makes: Germany's transition to renewable energy
showed positive forward momentum, with increasing energy production from
renewables, increased exports, decreased carbon emissions, and
decreasing consumer prices. The ruling German CDU-SPD coalition is now
pushing energy producers to improve on a new front: efficiency.
2014 saw the Energiewende, Germany’s renewable energy transition, clear
a few formidable hurdles and post some encouraging gains. But there were
setbacks, too.
First there were the production numbers, which should increase from year
to year as renewable capacity expands — and if the weather plays along,
which it did. For the first time ever, renewables led power production
in Germany, outpacing nuclear, black coal, and lignite (but not lignite
and black coal combined). Renewables generated 27.3 percent of
Germany’s electricity, up from 25 percent last year. Moreover, energy
consumption dropped by 3.8 percent while the economy grew by 1.4
percent, which the Berlin think tank Agora Energiewende said is a sign
that investments in energy-saving devices and equipment are paying off.
Very big — and welcome — news is that coal-generated power decreased, as
did carbon emissions. Over the past two years more coal was used than
2011 levels and GHG emissions crept up. This was enormously damaging to
the reputation of the Energiewende, both in Germany and abroad. Critics
carped: What’s the use of it if emissions go up?
Moreover, in 2014 the wholesale price for power dropped to a record low
of €33 per megawatt hour from €38 in 2013, which enabled Germany to
export more power than ever before. As for consumers, they benefited too
as prices fell slightly for private buyers.
2014 also saw the much-heralded reform of the EEG, Germany’s renewable
energy law. As expected, the Merkel government cut back the feed-in
tariff for solar PV and onshore wind, which will slow expansion. It also
introduced auctioning as a mechanism to finance renewable generation.
This is good news for big producers, like the utilities that can play
ball at this level. But it’s not welcome news for Germany’s smaller
producers, who to date have been the backbone of the Energiewende. Most
of them are simply too small to compete for tenders of this size.
The year ended with an unexpected Christmas present: Germany finally got
behind energy efficiency and ratcheted up the pressure on utilities to
cut emissions more dramatically, which translates into less coal-fired
production. The new program will slash carbon emissions by between 62
million and 78 million tons by 2020. A reduction of 25 to 30 million
tons will come by way of energy efficiency. There will be tax incentives
for the renovation of existing buildings' heating and hot water systems
as well as 40 billion euros from public and private schemes. In total,
this means an additional 70 to 80 billion euros in investment in
efficiency between now and 2020. Moreover, the Merkel government finally
got tough with the electricity sector, signaling it has to cut back an
additional 22 million tons of carbon emissions by capping coal-fired
power generation.
These measures were vigorously applauded by the greater Energiewende
community, which had come to doubt the Merkel administration’s
commitment to the project.
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http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/94-why-germanys-energy-transition-great-success
[images in on-line article]
94. Energiewende: Addressing the myths of Germany's energy transition
By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney
Energiewende – pronounced phonetically as “en-er-gee-ven-da,” is the
German word for the energy transition that’s been happening in Germany
for the past 25 years. This developed, industrialized country with a
large export economy is successfully and aggressively transitioning away
from fossil and nuclear to renewables.
In 2014, more than a quarter of all German electricity came from
renewable sources. Combine all the renewable energy sources together and
it’s the single largest piece of Germany’s electrical energy pie.
Renewable energy capacity has increased seven-fold since 1991 while GDP
has grown 28 per cent over the same time. Greenhouse gas emissions have
been reduced by 22 per cent during the same period. Even more surprising
Germany has relatively poor renewable energy resources. They don’t have
the blazing sun and wind of the prairies or our massive hydro and
biomass resources.
This rapid pace of change threatens business as usual and has attracted
critics armed with arguments that aim to belittle and besmirch Germany’s
energy transition.
“When I travel through Canada or the States I see a lot of information
that this really, really wrong. That is just technically wrong,” says
Christine Wörlen a Berlin-based renewable energy consultant and the
former head of renewable energies for the Germany Energy Agency.
“Like when you listen to Fox News saying it can only deploy so much
solar power because the solar regime in Germany is so much better than
the United States. That’s just you know, against the laws of physics.”
Germany is about as sunny as Alaska.
Reliable renewables
A common myth about Germany is that due to all that intermittent solar
and wind energy on their grid that they must be constantly suffering
from rolling blackouts.
It turns out you should never underestimate German engineering.
“There is an international comparison or benchmark that measures the
average time of how often the grid is in blackout, the average minutes
per year, and Germany has roughly 15 minutes per year when the grid is
in blackout,” says Arne Jungojohann, a Stuttgart based strategic advisor
on policy and politics who’s worked in the German parliament, in
Washington D.C. and German state politics. “Other countries like Italy
and France have 50 minutes per year. The United States does not even
have this kind of data available but they have set a benchmark of 120
minutes a year which would be okay for the grid to be offline.”
“It seems that Germany’s electricity system is one of the most reliable
energy grids in the world,” says Jungojohann.
Germany’s energy transition is also a mainstream, popular affair. The
centre-right government of Angela Merkel adopted the term in 2010 and
its popularity can be partly explained by a simple fact. Regular Germans
are involved and making money off of it.
“We see that in Germany a lot of citizens invest in wind parks, solar
panels, biogas plants and that is something that is unique compared to
other countries and the reason for this was the policy was set up so
that the little guy can compete with the big guy,” says Jungojohann.
By giving farmers, citizens, co-operatives and municipalities a leg up
on accessing Germany’s very successful and very aggressive feed-in
tariff program they were able to spread the benefits and investment of
the transition around and ensure broad political support. Citizens and
co-ops own forty-seven per cent of German renewables.
The feed-in tariff, which guarantees grid access and a fixed price for
renewable energy that’s produced means that the average German pays more
for their electricity than an average North American. But according to
independent energy analyst Chris Nelder that fact doesn’t appear to have
had much of an effect on the German economy, which has maintained strong
growth through the entire period.
“The wild claims that Germany’s energy transition would drive the
manufacturing industry out of Germany and destroy their industrial base
and all that none of that ever came to pass. They might have paid more
for solar in the early part of the transition but it hasn’t really hurt
their economy as far as I can see.”
GDP in Germany has grown at pace and the price of alternative energy
such as solar has declined significantly.
Of course not everything is perfect. Germany did see a small uptick in
electricity from coal in 2013 mostly for export purposes. And that
number has gone down in 2014. Jungojohann wishes the energiewende had
also focused on transportation fuel and heating as well.
But the best part about Germany’s energy transition, the part that
affects you and me here in North America, is how much the costs have
been driven down for renewable energy. It was German demand that spurred
a massive worldwide build out of solar PV manufacturing capacity. Now
wind and solar are competing, and winning, on price against conventional
fuels.
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