On Friday evening I went up to Bellingham to hear Bill McKibben speak. Bill has something fascinating to share with his audience, how Germany has reached the point where it had gotten over 74% of its electrical power from renewable sources the other day. That's a huge milestone, and it demonstrates that renewable sources can power a large industrial nation. Germany shows us that renewables aren't a potential source of power for some time in the future, they are a viable alternative TODAY.
Germany Sets New Record, Generating 74 Percent Of Power Needs From Renewable Energy
BY KILEY KROH
On Sunday, Germany’s impressive streak of renewable energy milestones continued, with renewable energy generation surging to a record portion — nearly 75 percent — of the country’s overall electricity demand by midday. With wind and solar in particular filling such a huge portion of the country’s power demand, electricity prices actually dipped into the negative for much of the afternoon, according to Renewables International.
In the first quarter of 2014, renewable energy sources met a record 27 percent of the country’s electricity demand, thanks to additional installations and favorable weather. “Renewable generators produced 40.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, up from 35.7 billion kilowatt-hours in the same period last year,” Bloomberg reported. Much of the country’s renewable energy growth has occurred in the past decade and, as a point of comparison, Germany’s 27 percent is double the approximately 13 percent of U.S. electricity supply powered by renewables as of November 2013.
Observers say the records will keep coming as Germany continues its Energiewende, or energy transformation, which aims to power the country almost entirely on renewable sources by 2050.
Bill also said that Germany is about the only country "
that is taking Global Warming seriously". Germany is where THIS country needs to be. The United States needs to stop being so timid with our badly needed conversion to renewable energy sources. The renewable technologies are readily available today, all that is lacking is the political will to do what we know we should do.
