Today, the Minister of the Economy for Germany (Robert Habeck, Greens) came out with the new strategy ahead. N-TV did a good bit of coverage over this.
The key quote? "We are starting with a drastic delay."
I should note....he's the Minister of 'Climate Action' on top of the economics job and the Vice-Chancellor for Germany.
So for those who weren't aware of it.....about six to eight years ago....various communities started to stand up and say 'no' to wind generators. Some of this came from the 'noise' (the hum)....some came from the affect on animals (marginally proven)....some came from health perceived worries (still no studies to settle this once and for all), and some came from the view-people who felt wind generators were ruining the landscape.
Rules and regulations were set up, and in a short period of time.....requests to build generators met a 'brick-wall'.
Habeck says that the federal government of Germany has to go out and convince states to limit regulations and open up more land for wind generator farms.
Then he said the key thing.....two-percent of the nation has to be approved for this. He says: "opening balance sheet for climate protection. We need more space."
So here's the thing....which you have to grasp about the wind generator concept. There are simply tons of open areas across the country which has dismal wind possibilities. You could select the whole Pfalz state and the wind crowd will grin, telling you that there are probably 700 different areas with potential, and the state could respond....we will let you have ten of them, and give you 300 different areas with less-than-desirable wind-flow.....meaning you put a generator up with marginal pay-back.
Habeck's chatter? He wants two-percent written into federal law and enforced in some way. The states agreeing to this? I doubt it....unless they are allowed to pick and chose the areas themselves.....away from communities and perhaps next to national parks/forests (which will draw negativity from the Green Party).
Other chatter today? Habeck says strict distance regulations have to be cut down. Bavaria runs a rule (10-H) which says for each meter in height.....it has to be ten times that away from villages. Odds of Bavaria agreeing to dump the rule? I'd say near zero.
You have to remember.....there's a life-cycle of usually 20 to 30 years for wind-generators. So when that 'end' comes.....you might not get new approval to raise number two in it's same location.
All this talk about convincing people? It's great to sit in some urbanized zone of Berlin and make bold statements....while not a single wind generator is built within the city limits of Berlin.
Why all this emphasis now? The Germans wrote down a goal of being climate-neutral by 2045, and they don't want to go back to accepting nuke-power in this solutions business.
Additional projects? Well....there's talk of mandating solar roofs for new buildings/homes. The fact that you have to mandate or force this? You would end up with projects being cheaply done.....producing marginal power, and a clock continually ticking with a life-cycle situation that no one wants to forecast or pay off.
The wife and I went to a solar show three years ago, before Covid came along. After a day of observing and asking questions......we just weren't sold on the idea. Maybe if the government offered up some tax credit (like 2,000 Euro a year for three years) to pay for the full 'deal'.....it might be worth the concept. But then the moment when life-cycle was discussed, and I asked how you dispose of the old solar panels (particularly cost).....the guy shut down real quick.
After some review....it's around 20 Euro presently for each panel to be disposed. Would it go up? Well....you don't know. The battery business? Some figures indicate 4 Euro per kg. Would that go up? Again, you don't know.
Where I see Habeck in a year? Marginal success. The states will eventually agree to allow certain chunks of land to meet the 2-percent goal in each state, but the wind crowd will be strongly discouraged on where the sites are located, and that they won't pay in the long-run.
As for mandating changes on restrictions near towns/villages? Don't expect anything to change on that.
On the solar panel business....it'll worked out where you can just slide by on this government mandate with two or three panels on the building.
Here's the bottom line.....Germans by 2030 will be paying an enormous amount of electricity. The average guy will respond that he's now using one-third the amount of power that his dad used in 1990, but paying four times the level of cost that dad paid.
As for Habeck's future? I think he'll say by 2025 (the next election)....he's had enough of the stress of the job, and been unable to accomplish anything because the states won't allow the feds to 'rule'.
Added note: The odds that Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin (three of the sixteen states) will agree to give their two-percent to the effort? ZERO. It'll never happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment