Global Investment in Renewable Energy: Germany

Fifth on our list is a country well known for its technological ingenuity and becoming increasingly popular for its renewable energy initiatives, Germany

Renewable energy technologies have deployed rapidly in Germany since 1990 largely as a result of energy policies adopted by the German government and the European Union.  The growth of renewable energy in Germany has often been cited as a model success story.  The German government launched a comprehensive series of promotions for renewable energy in the early 1990s, which has since been augmented with additional legislation and policy actions to increase renewable energy use.

 

Policies

Here are some of Germany’s energy plans:

The Electricity Feed Act came into force on 1 January 1991. In April 2000, it was replaced by the Renewable Energy Sources Act, which was amended a first time in July 2004 and again in 2008. The Renewable Energy Act is based on the following principles:

Obligation of grid operators to purchase the electricity produced from renewable energy .

Fixed price (“tariff”) for every kilowatt-hour produced from renewable energy for 20 years.

Tariffs are differentiated by source and size of the plant.

Equalisation of additional costs between all grid operators and electricity suppliers.

Motives

The first issue is the phase out of nuclear power. An early energy policy action of the Red-Green government was an initiative for the complete phase out of nuclear power in Germany by 2020.

The second issue is greenhouse gas control. The future challenges incumbent in nuclear phase-out are compounded by the ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets adopted by the German government.

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Renewable Energy Availability

Germany’s onshore wind generation in totalled 25,509 gigawatt-hours in 2004. Together with hydro power (21,076 gigawatt-hours), it dominates the market.

Biomass electricity is also contributing significantly (9,326 gigawatt-hours), with strong growth in the solid biomass sector (average annual growth of 34% between 1997 and 2004).

Solar energy has increased on average by 53% per year.

Stay tuned for more countries coming up!

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about renewable energy - Knowledge Is Power! For more information go to www.endeavorscorp.com or write to us at info@endeavorscorp.com if you have questions or want to get involved. Have a green day!

Global Change, EREC, Global Change, Europa, Bloomberg New Energy Finance and United Nations Environment Programme (2011)