NASDAQ
September 2, 2011
German 1st Half Renewable Power Production At Record High
Jan Hromadko
Dow Jones Newswires
Germany reached an all-time high in renewable energy production during the first six months of 2011, with 20.8 percent of Germany’s total power output. Wind power generation was up 13.1 percent over the same period in 2010, and solar photovoltaic power production was up more than 75 percent over 2010 figures. In fact, solar power production exceeded that of hydroelectric plants during the period, due to dry weather conditions which reduced hydro output. As noted in an earlier post in Energy Forward, the challenge for Germany will be “firming up” that renewable energy supply with baseload generation, if it follows through on its plan to retire all of its nuclear plants by 2022. Nonetheless, there are lessons to be learned from how quickly renewable power generation can be scaled up with consistent, firm national policies and incentives that promote renewable energy. That consistency is essential to provide the necessary certainty to attract investment, and is a missing ingredient in the U.S. energy policy (or, more correctly, the U.S. energy non-policy).