GERMANY QUITS SCREWING AROUND

Germany’s $263 Billion Renewables Shift Biggest Since War
Stefan Nicola, March 19, 2012 (Bloomberg-BusinessWeek)

'Not since the allies leveled Germany in World War II has Europe’s biggest economy undertaken a reconstruction of its energy market on this scale…Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning to build offshore wind farms that will cover an area six times the size of New York City and erect power lines that could stretch from London to Baghdad. The program will cost 200 billion euros ($263 billion), about 8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2011…

"Germany aims to replace 17 nuclear reactors that supplied about a fifth of its electricity with renewables such as solar and wind…[The] transformation is as challenging as the first moon landing…[If it] succeeds, it could be a role model for economies all over the world…If it fails, it will be a disaster for Germany’s politicians, society and economy…"

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"Germany is among the first nations to grapple with a global need to upgrade power stations. By 2035, at least $10 trillion of investment is needed to add 5,900 gigawatts of generation worldwide, more than five times the capacity of all U.S. utilities, the International Energy Agency estimates. Half of that will come from renewable. A gigawatt is about enough to supply 800,000 homes in the U.S. and a bit less than the capacity of a nuclear reactor…

"Germany’s efforts… seeks 25,000 megawatts of power generated by wind farms in the North Sea and Baltic Sea by 2030, about the same as 25 nuclear power stations. About 200 megawatts of offshore wind plants are working now…That will require 5,000 turbines…A record 7.5 gigawatts of solar capacity was installed last year…[and] Germany has built the world’s biggest renewable generation complex, with 53.8 gigawatts of wind and solar generators at the end of [2011]…Some of Germany’s biggest companies are entering the renewables business and backing the innovations needed to make expand the scale of the industry…"