I think the part below of 'eliminate waste' is where the wood pellets and the fat comes from as it is to be thrown away. Also they do want not to be dependent on Russia and others for the delivery of fuel - or the cut off of the fuel. The fat would be burned or oil- the wood or oil and it is there. They are way ahead of us in Hyrdogen (one recent news story said it had 450 mil EU funding on one project) and solar. I know Germany was talked about and I think they are the most solar country.
"The entire Danish Crown plant has been redesigned with an eye to saving energy, part of a thirty-year Danish effort to eliminate waste, conserve energy, and reduce consumption of fossil fuels, as The Wall Street Journal reports. " 07.09.01 | 2:00 AM FREIBURG, Germany -- Germany is not necessarily known as the sunniest spot in Europe. But nowhere else do so many people climb on their roofs to install solar panels. Since the introduction of the Renewable Energies Laws (EEG) in April last year, Germany has been experiencing a remarkable boom in solar energy. "When my cab driver gives me a lecture about solar technologies, I know I am back home," raved Rian van Staden, executive director of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) about Freiburg, the sunniest city in Germany and host to the InterSolar conference July 6-8. The little university town in southwest Germany, about 40 miles away from the French and Swiss borders, is Germany's "Solar Valley." A gigantic solar panel at the train station greets visitors to Freiburg. The city also boasts the new Zero Emissions Hotel Victoria, which is the first European hotel to run completely on alternative energy sources. Even Freiburg's premier league soccer stadium is solar powered. More than 450 environmentally oriented companies and institutions take advantage of the favorable weather, research, networking opportunities and progressive political climate in Freiburg, which makes even Berkeley -- its soul mate in the San Francisco Bay Area -- look comparatively conservative. Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, May 5, 2007; Page A01 ESPENHAIN, Germany -- When it opened here in 2004 on a reclaimed mining dump, the Geosol solar plant was the biggest of its kind in the world. It is so clean and green that it produces zero emissions and so easy to operate that it has only three regular workers: plant manager Hans-Joerg Koch and his two security guards, sheepdogs Pushkin and Adi. The plant is part of a building boom that has made gloomy-skied Germany the unlikely global leader in solar-generated electricity. Last year, about half of the world's solar electricity was produced in the country. Of the 20 biggest photovoltaic plants, 15 are in Germany, even though it has only half as many sunny days as countries such as Portugal. The reason is not a breakthrough in the economics or technology of solar power but a law adopted in 2000. It requires the country's huge old-line utility companies to subsidize the solar upstarts by buying their electricity at marked-up rates that make it easy for the newcomers to turn a profit. Their cleanly created power enters the utilities' grids for sale to consumers. The law was part of a broader measure adopted by the German government to boost production of renewable energy sources, including wind power and biofuels. As the world's sixth-biggest producer of carbon-dioxide emissions, Germany is trying to slash its output of greenhouse gases and wants renewable sources to supply a quarter of its energy needs by 2020. Since the Geosol plant was built, it has been eclipsed in size by six other German solar plants, including the new world's-largest, the Solarpark Gut Erlasee in Bavaria, which has more than double the capacity. Last month, construction began on yet another monster solar plant on an old military base in Brandis, about 12 miles north of Espenhain. Once completed, it will generate 40 megawatts, or enough to power about 10,000 homes. German officials readily acknowledged that they are embracing solar technology not just for its environmental benefits. German firms that manufacture photovoltaic panels and other components have prospered under the new energy act and now employ 40,000 people. An additional 15,000 people work for companies in the solar-thermal business, which make heating systems for homes and businesses. For now, the technology remains expensive and barely registers as a fraction of total energy production -- less than 0.5 percent. The government hopes to increase that figure to 3 percent by 2020. Industry supporters, however, say there are other factors that favor solar production in the long term. The stuff below was from 2001 German solar companies sold 75,000 solar systems in 2000 in addition to 360,000 solar systems installed previously, and photovoltaic installations increased fourfold from 1999. Solar power means big business in Germany: Solar companies generated revenues of $435 million in 2000. According to DFS, Germany -- with its 54 percent market share -- is by far the European leader in produced solar collectors. Last year in April, the Social-Democratic/Green German government introduced the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) to boost the planned switch to renewable energy sources. Producers of renewable energy get 43 cents for each kWh (kilowatt per hour) of solar power generated and 7 cents per kWh of wind energy generated. Since June, even producers of biomass energy -- usually "waste products" from farms like grass and wood -- are allowed to sell up to 9 cents per kWh of generated energy. "The beauty of this law is that costs of these incentives are not tied to any budget, but distributed and added to regular power prices," explained Uwe Hartmann, vice president of DGS, the German section of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES).
