Household battery storage units connected to solar roofs are about to take off in Germany, according to sector experts. But if storage + solar makes sense, so does storage on its own. Craig Morris explains.
All posts tagged: Germany
Germany already has more green power than it ever had nuclear
The Governor of New York State says Americans will be reading by candlelight unless nuclear is subsidized. The state’s Public Service Commission (NYPSC) implemented such subsidies at the beginning of August, claiming it “learned a lesson from Germany.” Craig Morris takes a look at the data.
Coal jobs down, but renewable jobs also flat in Germany
Today, Craig Morris covers the last major new chart in the update of our e-book for 2016. It shows that the worst is over in terms of job losses for coal power—and that there are already far more jobs related to renewables. What it doesn’t show is that Germany will fail to reach its 2020 target for green jobs by a wide margin.
What if all German households went renewable?
Today, Craig Morris explains our updated graphics on German energy consumption. Private consumers may support the further growth of renewables, but they also make up a relatively small part of total energy consumption.
Germany is the biggest clean tech funder worldwide
Today, Craig Morris is back with a new chart added to our e-book this year. It concerns Germany’s development bank—and it stems from coverage of solar in Germany at the Economist.
Comparing “energy poverty” in Germany with other countries
We have created a slew of new charts in the annual update of this website. Today, Craig Morris focuses on two of them concerning power prices and so-called energy poverty.
Germany gets new “Transport Transition” think tank
On July 1, Agora Verkehrswende officially went into business. A sister organization of Agora Energiewende, a think tank for Germany’s energy transition, Verkehrswende will focus (as the German name indicates) on the transport transition. If the organization truly pursues environmental policy, it will fill a gap. If it mainly concerns itself with industrial policy, it will be redundant. Craig Morris explores the possibilities.
The duck is safely afloat in California
“The duck has landed,” writes California-based energy expert Meredith Fowlie about renewables pushing demand for conventional power at midday below the overnight level. But what Californians call a technical limit is, in reality, a political one, as Craig Morris’s comparison with Germany reveals.
Will Germany reach its 2020 target for renewable power this year?
In the first half of 2016, 36.4 percent of the electricity produced in Germany was renewable according to preliminary data. The target for 2020 is only 35 percent – and that figure does not include power exports. Renewables seem to be cutting into both coal power and nuclear; gas is up. Craig Morris explains.
Berlin’s Renewable Energy Fiasco… Revisited
Although the Wall Street Journal has called the German energy transition a “fiasco,” Javier López Prol argues that renewables are clearly a success. Fossil fuels only seem cheaper as they externalize costs onto the environment, and that higher electricity costs are not the economic catastrophe that critics claim.