Green Budget Germany (FÖS), an environmental taxation organization, published an update of its study on the true cost of power in January. Craig Morris investigates. One of our most popular charts is the following: It is based on a study from 2012 (PDF) done by Green Budget Germany, a think tank we reference frequently. That study has been updated (PDF in German), but the authors say there are no plans for a translation. I therefore decided to translate three of the charts myself, and they require some explanation. First, we see below that the costs basically remain unchanged for the various sources, with the exception of renewables. Over just the past few years, the amount invested in green electricity rose from 67 to 102 billion euros. Their chart breaks down these items into the various components. For renewables, the main cost item is feed-in tariffs. Because I always argue that feed-in tariffs are not subsidies, this item led to some confusion when I tried to explain the chart. The German authors say they used “a … Continue reading What electricity really costs