Country Hailed as 'First Major Renewable Energy Economy' Is Now Collapsing Into Power Poverty
It’s beginning to look like Germany put too many eggs in the renewable energy basket.
For years now, progressives have praised the European country for paving the way forward on renewable energy. With the fourth largest economy in the world, Germany has had 100 percent of its energy output covered by renewables for years now, according to Clean Energy Wire.
Renewable Energy World praised the country over a decade ago for being “the world’s first major renewable energy economy.”
Because of this overreliance on renewables, energy prices have skyrocketed. Thanks to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the price of natural gas is spiking, leaving European nations with no cheap alternatives. Power prices in Germany have reached record levels, forcing the German government to increase the annual cost of household gas bills by nearly 500 euros, Reuters reported.
“The alternative would have been the collapse of the German energy market and, with it, large parts of the European energy market,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said, according to Foreign Policy Magazine.
The country has since taken up a number of energy-saving measures. For instance, the government has shut off spotlights by monuments in the capital city of Berlin, and people have taken to stocking up on wood for the upcoming winter.
If the country had instead invested in nuclear power, a clean yet reliable alternative to renewables like wind and solar, perhaps this crisis wouldn’t be as severe.
Sadly, the country opted to phase out all of its nuclear power plants. In July, Reuters reported the many reasons for this decision — none of which really made any sense if you realize how great of an energy alternative nuclear power is.
“A first assessment by the environment and economy ministries in March did not recommend extending the plants’ lifetime, citing legal, licensing and insurance challenges, the need for extensive and possibly costly safety checks and a lack of fuel rods to keep the plants running,” Reuters reported.
Author and journalist Michael Shellenberger used to be a big fan of renewables until he learned more about their actual cost. Speaking with The Wall Street Journal on Aug. 8, Shellenberger revealed why Germany and the rest of green energy Europe, for that matter, were headed for disaster.
According to Shellenberger, the world is currently in a crisis of too many renewables.
“Germany had too much renewables. Its electricity is now the most expensive in Europe, and it became dependent on Russia for reliable fuels, mostly natural gas, because it depended so much on these weather-dependent renewables,” Shellenberger told the Journal.
In his view, Europe isn’t the only country in danger of facing this crisis.
As politicians in the Democratic Party continue to demand a transformation of the American energy economy, this threat becomes more likely to hit the states.
“In the Western parts of the United States first, but now increasingly in the Midwest of the United States, we’re running into potential electricity shortages,” Shellenberger said. “That’s been a consequence of becoming overly reliant on weather-dependent renewables, namely solar panels and wind turbines.”
It’s quite telling how the climate change extremists across the world have gotten us into this predicament.
If the goal really was to reduce carbon emissions, nuclear power would be at the forefront of energy alternatives. Even natural gas would be pushed much harder. But, many of the most ardent climate change alarmists oppose both options.
Then again, what else would one expect from the left? They’ve never cared about facts before.
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