Our World and Everything in It

Germany is leading the world in a renewable energy surge. It truly believes that the world needs to turn around by 2020 and is aiming at a 100% green future. We have to remember that close to 40% of Germany’s energy is nuclear though. Some consider it a renewable energy source, so Germany may reach its goal easily. After all, Iceland plans to be totally hydrogen powered in the near future.

Germany has a lot of faith in wind and solar power. A double row of solar panels lines the Autoban Hwy. outside of Munich. And the government offers cash incentives to anyone that installs expensive solar panels. There is a price guarantee and they get the equivalent of 50 cents for every KW that goes back to the grid. People slapped panels up everywhere. Germany also got its farmers involved. They use part of their land for either solar panels or wind towers. Loans are easy to get because of price guarantees on renewable energy. Germany leads the world in wind power. 7.3% of all German electricity comes from it.
 
With the incentives, it looks like Germany may make the 30% mark by 2020. And switching to this economy created 170,000 new jobs. That’s a lot of jobs. It doesn’t look like it’s all that efficient a source of power yet, but with practice… The price of solar panels will drop with new innovation and better efficiency. Wind towers will come along that are quiet and not a risk to birds.

Perhaps when Germany becomes a model for other countries the U.S. will finally get in gear. We already have the innovation, we just need to set it free. Germany had virtually no alternative energy use 10 years ago, and now it leads the world. It can be done. Oh, and the first hydrogen powered Beemer is out already. Need hydrogen stations on the to do list!
 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 8:54 pm and is filed under Alternative Energy Sources, Birds, CO2 Emissions, Coalburners, Energy Costs, Energy Infrastructure, Environment and Jobs, Environmental Capital, Environmentalism, Global Warming, Global Warming Policy, Int'l Environmental Competition, Methods for Lowering Energy Costs, Michigan Energy Legislation, Michigan Environmental Policy, Pollution, Solar Energy, Wind Power. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.