Over Half of Germany’s Renewable Energy Owned By Citizens & Farmers, Not Utility Companies
January 10th, 2012Via: Treehugger:
Germany’s promotion of renewable energy rightly gets singled out for its effectiveness, most often by me as an example of how to do things well versus the fits and starts method of promotion common in the US. Over at Wind-Works, Paul Gipe points out another interesting facet of the German renewable energy saga: 51% of all renewable energy in Germany is owned by individual citizens or farms, totaling $100 billion worth of private investment in clean energy.
Breaking that down into solar power and wind power, 50% of Germany’s solar PV is owned by individuals and farms, while 54% of its wind power is held by the same groups.
Starting from the caveat that I’ve not *personally* run through the stats & numbers involved, I’m a little skeptical (what a surprise!) at the meaning behind the numbers the author of the linked blog post is using as a foundation for his message of hope and change — led by a charging Germanic horde of eco-friendly farmers and freaks.
Most of the windpower you see going up in these parts, in a windy corner of far western Germany, are of the MASSIVE variety that say SIEMENS or GAMESA or similar along the generator housing perched high atop their giant metallic bastions.
These suckers cost upwards of a quarter million each. Most installations are groups of several, and on top of the unit cost per device you’ve got all the road-grading and and prep work on the ground that make it possible to move a large flatbed truck and two large cranes into position to put it all together. PLUS man-hours.
Not many small-to-medium sized farmers in this market.
One thing I think the official numbers are masking is private investment (“venture”) capital moving into the renewable energy sector here in a large way. Yes, Virginia, there is a movement toward micro-generation here, primarily in small-scale solar and earth-generated heat systems.
That said, my view should be seen as no more than an on-the-ground observation from an interested Anglo-correspondent embedded deep in the fields & forests of Fortress Europe.