Germany's Coming Energy Revolution

This article paints Germany’s “Green Energy” in a way too rosy picture. The reality is much different. A good article about this is “Germany’s Green Energy Gap” in the August 2009 IEEE Spectrum (submitted here: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=887095" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=887095</a> original here: <a href="http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/energy/policy/germanys-green-energy-gap" rel="nofollow">http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/energy/policy/germanys-green-en...</a> ).<p>The problem is that Germany had massive subsidies (especially for Wind Farms). And offshore wind farms are being built in water 20-40 meters deep 40 kms of the coast (with the grid operators forced to connect offshore wind farms at their cost). So it has huge problems – the recession probably helped Germany to advert an energy crises. The phaseout of nuclear power stations will probably be delayed.<p>IMHO people need to be a lot more pragmatic about green energy and nuclear power. Nuclear power still generates double the amount of electricity than renewable in Germany even while it is being phased out. It would be much better if they phased out the coal power stations instead.

My parents are already selling energy. Because of subsidies buying your own PV array has become a great and save investment in Germany. The banks are happy to give you credit because the price for every KWH is guaranteed (way above market prices — 20 Eurocent or so, I don't know exactly), the array is insured and has a twenty year warranty. And in those twenty years you will have paid off it all (right when most of those who bought it now hit retirement age).<p>So all those PVs you see when visiting Germany? All built for totally selfish reasons, no tree huggers involved. (I'm personally agnostic as to whether those subsidies are an enviromentally sound idea. But this at least shows that subsidies can be a powerful tool.)

No mention of what may well be the biggest contributor : passive houses. These regulate their interior climate without any active energy consumption. No heating, no cooling at all. They are extremely well insulated homes with big heat-exchangers between incoming and outgoing air. This way, incoming air is brought to the temperature of the outgoing air. No stale air and no energy consumption.<p>They are almost exclusively new homes, as they require NASA-level insulation that is impossible to put on old, or simply existing, buildings. Also, the air-ducts and heat-exchanger needs to be engineered into the building.

This is an answer to Russian gas shortage year ago. =)