The decline of reneweable energy

[WernherVonTrapp]

These babies are popping up all over New Jersey. They're meant to collect electrical energy from the sun and pump it back into the grid in order to save on the fuels that run the generators.
Savings for the comsumer? $0.00

[Dan D]

Originally Posted by Skybird

You just confirm what i say, DanD. In Germany the power price becomes the higher, due to the subsidies, the more renewable from wind and solar is produced. Take away the subsidies, and nobody would have bought solar panels.

That is not a functioning and healthy system.

Not necessarily did I confirm what you say, Skybird.
I am not even sure, if I understand what you are aiming at by bringing this topic up the way you did.

@subsidies
There are subsidies not only for renewable energy but also for fossil fuels and nuclear power.

What happens if you take away the subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear power? What about EU subsidies for farmers?

Germany has recently cut its subsidies for renewal energy actually, but also notice that “ since 2007 the nation (Germany) has accounted for 30 to 50 percent of the planet's annual solar PV capacity“.

Put the quoted statement into the context of the Lombergs statement, which was: „To be sure, wind and solar have increased dramatically. Since 1990, wind-generated power has grown 26% per year and solar a phenomenal 48%. But the growth has been from almost nothing to slightly more than almost nothing. In 1990, wind produced 0.0038% of the world’s energy; it is now producing 0.29%. Solar-electric power has gone from essentially zero to 0.04%.“

„Vot iss“???

Germany`s problem surely lies somewhere else:
"The Renewable Energy Act (EEG), which costs about €7 billion a year, is structured to degress as installations climb, thus maintaining steady internal rates of return (IRR) for projects, and generally keeping pace with plunging PV costs. "

Read: EEG „structured to degress, maintaining steady internal rates of return, keeping pace with plunging PV costs.“

"In the first few weeks of 2012, though, German officials realized they had a big problem: preliminary estimates indicated new solar PV installations in 2011 leaped to a record 7.5 GW in 2011, far outpacing the country's 2.5 to 3.5 GW plans -- with a whopping 3 GW in December 2011 alone, thanks to mild weather and desires to get installs done before the next scheduled FiT reductions in January."
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/...ainment-policy

A study by the German Solar Industry Association has found out that „Solar power reduces electricity trading prices by up to ten percent“

If that true, how does the German Solar Industry Association explain the fact that electricity costs for households are rising?:

„However, household consumers do not benefit from the price-reduction effects. In fact, the opposite is true: The calculation methodology for the EEG Apportionment actually results in higher prices for private consumers because they have to cover the differential costs between cheap, peak demand power and guaranteed feed-in remuneration. If the price-reduction effect of photovoltaics was factored into EEG Apportionment payments, it would result in a price reduction of 0.15 cents per kilowatt-hour for household consumers.“

The wholesalers and large-scale power users on the other hand:
„At the present time, the price-reduction effect primarily benefits wholesalers and large-scale power users who obtain their power on the spot market. Thus, current solar policies allow lucrative double dipping on the part of power-intensive industries. Firstly, they benefit from lower purchase prices on the power market, and secondly they gain significant exemption from EEG Apportionment payments (apportionment payments set down by the Renewable Energy Sources Act)“
http://www.solarwirtschaft.de/en/med...3a1c8151c31d62

That article is weird, not only does it somehow include coal in its warnings about biomass, but it also warns of a "growing" risk to health that somehow has halved in a short time.
So....

Such unfriendly numbers can really ruin your daydreams, eh?

....applies to the daydreams of the author, who is also very light on broaching things like water, as I suppose those numbers would ruin his daydream too
That graph seems very iffy too
How can all global renewables amount to 12% when a single renewable currently provides 16%?
Actually when you look at the sources he cites you find most of the claims are absolute bollox, if he has to make up figures to make a point he has very little real point to make.