Posts from the ‘Policy’ Category

Clearing Up the Facts About Solar In Germany

On January 18, 2011, the German magazine Der Spiegel published an article titled “The Solar Subsidy Sinkhole,” which paints a distorted picture of the German solar story. The following summarizes the misleading statements made – and facts to correct them.

SPIEGEL: “As is so often the case in winter, all solar panels more or less stopped generating electricity at the same time. To avert power shortages, Germany currently has to import large amounts of electricity generated at nuclear power plants in France and the Czech Republic.”

FACT: During Europe’s extreme cold weather in February 2012, German news reported that Germany actually increased its electricity exports, thanks in part to photovoltaics helping to strengthen grid stability at peak hours. France, in turn, relying on nuclear powered heating, had to import electricity from Germany.

FACT: Germany has been a longtime net electricity exporter. In Summer 2011, the country did need to intermittently import electricity from neighboring countries; however, the cause was not attributed to photovoltaics, but to the nation’s ambitious shutdown of 7 nuclear power plants following the Fukushima disaster. Despite this bold move, Germany again became a net exporter of electricity in October 2011, according to the International Energy Agency’s most recent statistics.

SPIEGEL: “German consumers already complain about having to pay the second-highest electricity prices in Europe.”

via Clearing Up the Facts About Solar In Germany | renewables100PI.

Low Carbon Credit Prices Are a Sign of Success, Not Failure

Sadly we’ve another piece bemoaning the fact that carbon credits, under the European Union’s cap and trade plan, are low. The point that low prices are a sign of the success of the plan, not a failure of it, seems to have escaped the people advancing this argument.

The piece is here at Der Spiegel.

“Emissions trading, the European Union hoped, would limit the release of harmful greenhouse gases. But it isn’t working. The price for emissions certificates has plunged, a development that is actually making coal more attractive than renewable energy.”

This is an unfortunate but not uncommon problem: people failing to distinguish the effects of price under a carbon tax plan and a cap and trade plan.

via Low Carbon Credit Prices Are a Sign of Success, Not Failure – Forbes.

Overinvesting in energy efficiency, on purpose

Let’s briefly review what we’ve covered so far in my rebound series:

1. Climate change means we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a lot, beginning immediately.
2. There are two ways to reduce GHG emissions from energy: increase low-carbon energy supply and/or decrease total energy consumption.
3. Ramping up clean energy supply can’t be done fast enough to keep us within our carbon budget, certainly not in the short- to mid-term, if at all. So we’ve got to use less energy.
4. There are two ways to reduce energy demand: reduce the energy intensity of the global economy and/or reduce the growth of the global economy.
5. Substantially reducing global energy intensity turns out to be extremely difficult, thanks in part to the rebound effect.
6. If energy intensity can’t be reduced quickly enough, then the only answer left (other than failing to stabilize global temperature at all) is slowing GDP growth. Yikes.

via Overinvesting in energy efficiency, on purpose | Grist.