Duitse zonne-energie: een bodemloze put

Voor vele milieuactivisten in ons land is Duitsland het walhalla van de duurzame energie. Het Duitse systeem wordt aan Nederland ten voorbeeld gesteld, met name wat betreft de royale financiering. Vaak gehoorde argumenten zijn: goed voor het milieu; goed voor het klimaat; goed voor de kenniseconomie; goed voor de economische groei; goed voor de export; en goed voor de werkgelegenheid. In de praktijk blijkt hiervan niets te kloppen.

Zelfs in het klimaathysterische Duitsland begint nu zo langzamerhand het besef door te dringen dat het hier om een bodemloze put gaat. Op zijn Engelstalige website schenkt 'Der Spiegel' aandacht aan de toenemende twijfels over zonne-energie. Aangezien 'Der Spiegel' grote invloed heeft op de Duitse publieke opinie, ligt het voor de hand dat er binnenkort belangrijke beleidswijzigingen zullen komen.

Onder de titel, 'Solar Subsidy Sinkhole. Re-Evaluating Germany's Blind Faith in the Sun', bericht Alexander Neubacher:

The costs of subsidizing solar electricity have exceeded the 100-billion-euro mark in Germany, but poor results are jeopardizing the country's transition to renewable energy. The government is struggling to come up with a new concept to promote the inefficient technology in the future. ...

The Baedeker travel guide is now available in an environmentally-friendly version. The 200-page book, entitled "Germany - Discover Renewable Energy," lists the sights of the solar age: the solar café in Kirchzarten, the solar golf course in Bad Saulgau, the light tower in Solingen and the "Alster Sun" in Hamburg, possibly the largest solar boat in the world. The only thing that's missing at the moment is sunshine.

For weeks now, the 1.1 million solar power systems in Germany have generated almost no electricity. The days are short, the weather is bad and the sky is overcast. As is so often the case in winter, all solar panels more or less stopped generating electricity at the same time. To avert power shortages, Germany currently has to import large amounts of electricity generated at nuclear power plants in France and the Czech Republic.

To offset the temporary loss of solar power, grid operator Tennet resorted to an emergency backup plan, powering up an old oil-fired plant in the Austrian city of Graz.

Solar energy has gone from being the great white hope, to an impediment, to a reliable energy supply. Solar farm operators and homeowners with solar panels on their roofs collected more than €8 billion ($10.2 billion) in subsidies in 2011, but the electricity they generated made up only about 3 percent of the total power supply, and that at unpredictable times. ...

Until now, Merkel had consistently touted the environmental sector's "opportunities for exports, development, technology and jobs." But now even members of her own staff are calling it a massive money pit. New numbers issued by the pro-industry Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Economic Research (RWI) will only add fuel to the fire. The experts calculated the additional costs to consumers after more solar systems were connected to the grid than in any other previous month in December. Under Germany's Renewable Energy Law, each new system qualifies for 20 years of subsidies. A mountain of future payment obligations is beginning to take shape in front of consumers' eyes. According to the RWI, the solar energy systems connected to the grid in 2011 alone will cost electricity customers about €18 billion in subsidy costs over the next 20 years. ...

For the average family, this would amount to an additional charge of about €200 a year, in addition to the actual cost of electricity. Solar energy has the potential to become the most expensive mistake in German environmental policy.

Bij de voorlichting over duurzame energie is desinformatie de norm.

Solar lobbyists like to dazzle the public with impressive figures on the capability of solar energy. For example, they say that all installed systems together could generate a nominal output of more than 20 gigawatts, or twice as much energy as is currently being produced by the remaining German nuclear power plants. But this is pure theory. The solar energy systems can only operate at this peak capacity when optimally exposed to the sun's rays (1,000 watts per square meter), at an optimum angle (48.2 degrees) and at the ideal solar module temperature (25 degrees Celsius, or 77 degrees Fahrenheit) -- in other words, under conditions that hardly ever exist outside a laboratory. In fact, all German solar energy systems combined produce less electricity than two nuclear power plants. And even that number is sugarcoated, because solar energy in a relatively cloudy country like Germany has to be backed up with reserve power plants. This leads to a costly, and basically unnecessary, dual structure.

In Germany, solar is by far the most inefficient technology among renewable energy sources, and yet it receives the most subsidies. Some 56 percent of all green energy subsidies go to solar systems, which produce only 21 percent of subsidized energy.

For a time, it seemed that at least the German solar industry was benefiting from the generous subsidy rates. But the green economic miracle has, in the case of the solar industry, turned out to be a subsidy bubble.

Lees verder hier.

En zo voltrekt zich de ontrafeling van het Duitse duurzame energiebeleid dat tot torenhoge elektriciteitskosten heeft geleid, vernietiging van landschap, instabiliteit in het elektricteitsnet, toenemende import van elektriciteit (inclusief die van Franse kerncentrales), en decennialange subsidieverplichtingen in de toekomst. En wat is het klimaateffect van dit alles? Niets. 'All pain and no gain!'

Zie ook Rypke Zeilmaker op Climategate.nl:

http://climategate.nl/2012/01/20/duitse-zonne-energiebeleid-krijgt-der-spiegel-voorgehouden/