Although resistance to littering the landscape with industrial wind turbines continues to grow strongly, the German government refuses to back off its expansion of wind energy and solar.
Protests groups reach over 1000 in number as wind turbine litter the German landscape. Photo: Windwahn.
Jonas Herrmann of the Swiss NZZ here comments how Germany "is struggling with its wind turbines".
It started 28 years ago, when the German government enacted a law that forced power companies to buy up any green power produced, pay exorbitant prices for it and feed it into the power grid whether it was needed or not. Over time the installation of solar panels and wind turbines exploded and today many parts of the countryside have become littered with unsightly wind parks.
Ruined landscape, yet a long way to go
Yet, Germany today remains far away from supplying its energy needs through "green" sources.
The NZZ comments: "The landscape has changed in many places as a result. A longer drive through Germany inevitably leads past dozens of wind turbines."
Moreover, every community has been impacted, Nikolai Ziegler, says the chairman of resistance group Vernunftkraft, which is the major umbrella association of wind power opponents. According to Ziegler: "In Germany there are more than 1000 citizens' initiatives that are mobilizing against wind energy" and that these groups are getting involved in politics.
Wind and sun will never be able to do the job
Not only are wind turbines ruining Germany's idyllic landscape, but the NZZ writes that much of the resistance is also based on wind energy's technical unreliability as a power supply. The Herrmann at NZZ cites engineering expert Dr. Detlef Ahlborn, who says wind energy is too erratic and thus unreliable.
According to the NZZ;
With the umbrella organization Vernunftkraft, everyone is convinced that wind and solar energy will never be able to ensure a secure power supply."
Proponents in denial
This is a claim that the German government and green energy proponents refuse to acknowledge. Proponents in Germany believe that the problems with green energies will somehow go away and the supply will miraculously somehow smooth out if more and more volatile wind and sun capacity gets installed.
Critics like Nikolai Ziegler also criticize that there really hasn't even been any real Energiewende (transition the green energies) so far because electricity is only one fifth of Germany's total energy demand. Green energies provide only one third of that one measly fifth, and so "it's relatively meaningless".
The NZZ notes that "most of the leaders of the protest group Vernunftkraft are "male in the second half of their lives" who "are united by their anger at wind energy", but adds most have a background in natural science almost half of them are professors.
"Path to the unknown"
Vernunftkraft is calling for an end to green energy subsidies, a stop to the construction of additional wind turbines and instead greater investment in gas-fired power plants
The NZZ writes:
However, a political majority is not in sight. Although the AfD and parts of the FDP [parties] believe the Energiewende is a mistake, the German government can hardly prevent a further expansion of renewable energies. Germany is thus still on the path to the unknown with the Energiewende."
from Climate Change Skeptic Blogs via hj on Inoreader http://bit.ly/2VS1cYq
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