I just came back from a visit to Germany after 5 years and I was blown away by the gigantic size of all the solar panels and wind turbines spread throughout Germany. It is unreal if you see it.<p>Following the news and hanging out with my old friends talking about the energy policy in Germany I learned very quickly how messed up this is now.<p>A kWh is now 34cent and continues to explode and it is not surprising given how the German politician approached their energy policy. It is a long article with lots of depth, but this statement captures the core of the problem, “Swedish utilities have an interest in maximizing their return on investment. This is different in Germany, where the most inefficient technology at a given time is the most heavily subsidized”.<p>Twenty years ago when I graduated with my EE I learned about the challenge of storing efficient and cost effective energy in the GW and that has not been resolved. This energy policy is a good example when a free market with demand and supply is ignored. The politician do not understand the technical details, have lots of special interest influencers and set policies in place which can have some really negative long term effect. The thinking is they just can overrule a market by subsidizing, but this works only to a certain level. I am all for renewable energy, but I do think it has to be done in a competitive way otherwise it is unsustainable in the long run.<p>It is really bizarre to read that a country investing billions in a zero emission energy solution now increases its CO2 emission by 2 percent. When I visited I heard the story from the wind turbine on Borkum as well and though that something went seriously wrong here, but as always when politics is involved no one is accountable.