Is the German Renewable Energy Industry in Jeopardy after the election?

"Germany's newly elected government could hinder the expansion of renewable energy in the country with its plans to extend the lifetime of nuclear reactors, warns the German Renewable Energy Federation (Source: Bundesverband Erneuerbare Energie - BEE)."

Like BEE spokesman Daniel Kluge, many other experts of renewable energy industry worry that renewable energy upstarts could be the ones bumped aside by the new government. The main issues to be disputed will be the tariffs for wind, solar and other renewable energy sources. Is the feed-in tariff for solar, which many argue is too high, in jeopardy or is Germany now heading in the right policy direction by seeking market-oriented feed-in tariffs?

click here to read the full article by by John Blau on renewableenergyworld.com

Read more Articles about this Topic (click LINKS indicated below):

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Solar Evolution — The beginning of a new era for solar power

"A new era for solar power is approaching. Long derided as uneconomic, it is gaining ground as technologies improve and the cost of traditional energy sources rises.Within three to seven years, unsubsidized solar power could cost no more to end customers in many markets, such as California and Italy, than electricity generated by fossil fuels or by renewable alternatives to solar. By 2020, global installed solar capacity could be 20 to 40 times its level today."

McKinsey & Company | Authors: Peter Lorenz, Dickon Pinner, and Thomas Seitz

Source: Climate Change Special Initiative and McKinsey Quarterly

Forecast — The growing competitiveness of solar power: McKinsey forecasts grid parity within the next three to seven years. This means that solar energy's unsubsidized cost to end users will approach the cost of conventional electricity in a number of markets, including parts of the United States (California and the Southwest), as well as Italy, Japan and Spain.

Outlook — The global solar market in 2020: According to McKinsey, the worldwide installed global solar capacity will grow by roughly 30 to 35 percent a year, from 10 gigawatts today to about 200 gigawatts in 2020.

TO READ THE FULL ARTICLES:

McKinsey Quarterly — The economics of solar power (LINK);
McKinsey Quarterly — Evaluating the potential of solar technologies (LINK1, 2).

Endless potential of the sun

"The total power needs of the humans on Earth is approximately 16 terawatts. In the year 2020 it is expected to grow to 20 terawatts. (Ed. A terawatt is a trillion watts.)

The sunshine on the solid part of the Earth is 120,000 terawatts. From this perspective, energy from the sun is virtually unlimited."

Eicke Weber, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems,

in Freiburg (Germany)

Source: National Geographic Magazine | Author: George Johnson

TO READ THE FULL ARTICLES:

National Geographic — Plugging Into the Sun (LINK)

National Geographic — Ranking Renewables (LINK)

National Geographic — Renewable Futures (LINK)