Germany
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Which are cheaper — tradeable credits or feed-in tariffs?
Cross-posted from Climate Progress. A few years ago, a heated debate started within the U.S. solar industry about which was more cost-effective: solar renewable energy credits (SRECs) or feed-in tariffs (FITs). Now that we’ve had more experience with both policies, the question is again being asked. Researchers at the Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR) […]
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Critical List: Climate change officially caused an extreme weather event; climate denier smackdown
Climate change caused the Russian heat wave, according to statistics and science (if you believe that sort of thing). Nebraska could reroute the Keystone XL pipeline. Eugene Robinson smacks down climate deniers. Money quote: "It is the know-nothing politicians — not scientists — who are committing an unforgivable fraud." This German transportation system is a […]
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Are we in a solar trade war with China?
Concerns about China's support of domestic solar companies have been brewing for years. But they have finally come to a boiling point -- and it's causing some in the solar industry to feel burned.
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Local solar could power the Mountain West right now, all of America in 2026
If the U.S. had kept pace with German solar installation, we'd be on our way to being a 100 percent solar-powered nation.
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German state minister: The Kochs are ruining U.S. renewables
Ever wonder why Germany has a robust renewables economy, while the U.S. keeps claiming it's not achievable? Here's a theory from Franz Unterskeller, German state minister for the environment, climate, and energy:
We don't have the situation like you have in the U.S., where you have this Koch brothers.
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Germany has so much wind energy, they'll pay you to take it
How much will switching to renewables raise your utility bill? How about NEGATIVE ALL OF IT? In Germany, wind and solar projects have regularly been generating so much surplus energy that utilities are paying consumers to take it off the grid. High winds -- although not that high, only 15 mph -- led to negative-price wind energy for nine hours on July 24, bringing Germany's total to 31 hours of below-zero-cost energy this year.
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Germany's phaseout reveals the true costs of nuclear power
Bad news for nuclear advocates: Nuclear power turns out even more expensive than we thought.
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German small solar cheaper than big U.S. solar
This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. The U.S. has a hodge-podge of utility, state, and federal tax-based incentives. The Germans have a comprehensive feed-in tariff, providing CLEAN contracts (in the U.S. parlance) to anyone who wants to go solar (or wind, or […]
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It's not just the U.S. — China is also eating Germany's solar lunch
Germany has more installed solar capacity than any other country on the planet, despite having a population of only 80 million people. You'd think that would be enough to drive a market for domestic solar production, but only if you lived under a globalization-proof rock and ate steaming bowls of naivete for breakfast.