Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Germany, at the same latitude as southern Alaska, often has cloudy
skies and has 27 percent of the population of the United States. Yet the
number of installed solar panels in Germany is more than three times
that in the United States. Spain and Japan, also with much smaller
populations, are also ahead of us.
Germany is one of the leaders not only in solar heating (second to
Spain) but in wind power as well. Germany (and Spain as well) has
instituted feed-in tariffs (FITs), as have eighteen other EU countries
(including Spain) and forty-six countries worldwide.
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FITs guarantee
that anyone who generates electricity from a renewable energy source—
whether a home owner, small business, or large electric utility—can sell
that electricity into the grid and receive long-term payments for each
kilowatt-hour produced. Payments are set by the government at prees-
tablished rates, often higher than what the market would ordinarily pay,
to ensure that developers earn profi table returns.
The push for solar power by the Spanish government generated a
rapid production response from industry. Spain is now the world leader
in solar photovoltaic installations; solar installations there quadrupled
from 2007 to 2008. When political leaders establish policies, innovators
create new industries or enlarge existing ones. It is noteworthy that
Germany has a solar profi le like that of Alaska; Spain's is like that of
Idaho. Clearly the intensity of sunlight is not vital for solar power to be
commercial.
Germany's Reichstag in Berlin is set to become the fi rst parliamentary
building in the world to be powered 100 percent by renewable energy.
Soon the entire country will follow suit. The country is accelerating its
efforts to become the world's fi rst industrial power to use 100 percent
renewable energy, perhaps by 2050.
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Germans believe the switch will
add 800,000 to 900,000 new jobs by 2030. In 2008 the percentage of
renewables in Germany's primary energy consumption was only 7.3
percent, but the government expects that to increase to 33 percent by
2020 and 50 percent by 2030 as the country thunders ahead in its
conversion program.
The United States has relied primarily on two state-level policies to
promote renewable energy, net metering and renewable portfolio stan-
dards, but they have not been as effective at promoting renewable energy
as the FIT system has. Net metering has been implemented in forty-two
states and the District of Columbia. Energy produced by a utility cus-
tomer can offset the power it consumes from the utility-fed grid, much
like being able to obtain store credit by selling home-grown peaches to
