Last year, Germany
produced a record amount of energy from solar panels installed on rooftops and
in fields across the country. Germany now has half of the world's entire solar
energy capacity, with a total of about 25 gigawatts of installed panels. An extraordinary
7.5 gigawatts of panels were added to the country’s energy system in 2011,
twice the government’s target. One would think that for a country that is so committed
to targets for renewable energy and emissions reductions, this would be a good
thing. Instead, politicians in Berlin are negotiating to find a way to slow
down this rapid expansion, due to the huge costs involved in paying for solar
power. Critics argue that the costs have shot up, as solar expanded from just 1
percent of energy in 2009 to 3.5 percent in 2011. It’s on target to rise as
much as 4.5 percent this year. This expansion is pushing up energy costs in
general for the German economy. In a sense, Germany’s solar energy policy is a
victim of its own success. This is a very hard choice to make for Germany because
solar energy is so helpful for the environment but is very costly. This doesn’t
seem to be a very big social problem but in the long run if Germany stops using
solar energy and stops buying these panels this could result in the closing of
many businesses and the loss of jobs. Hopefully Germany can decide upon an alternative decision that involves keeping the solar energy systems without spending a fortune on them.
No comments:
Post a Comment