Today is Blog Action Day and the topic is Climate Change, so I asked Chris Blackman, a strategic consultant who specializes in finding both private and public funding for the green and clean technology sectors, to tell us about a country that has used US-invented technology and incentives to become a global solar leader.
Chris also provides compelling background on a subject that enrages me—sacrificing one limited resource for another.
From Chris…
In 1940 Russell Ohl, a scientist at Bell Labs, invented the photovoltaic cell.
So why is dark, rainy Germany a world leader in installed photovoltaic solar panels and solar manufacturing equipment instead of the US?
I work in the sector and am frankly astonished that anyone would even say the words ‘Germany’ and ‘solar power’ in the same sentence.
Germany became a solar leader by use of a feed-in-tariff. Many panelists at the AlwaysOn going green conference in San Francisco last month derided this promising incentive to encourage the adoption of clean energy technologies.
To learn more I contacted Sebastian Britting, a visiting graduate scholar at Columbia University, who will publish the results of his thesis analyzing all the economic and ecological implications of America emulating Germany’s success implementing this program.
How does a feed-in-tariff work?
Sebastian explained “the utility companies are forced through legislation to accept clean sources of energy generated by individuals, provide access points where the individual can feed the energy into the grid and pay the individual a premium for the energy they have generated.”
Germans quickly latched on to this program because it is a guaranteed source of income. This is clearly demonstrated by the year-on-year increase in solar technology equipment in German homes: 40% for the each of the last three years.
The benefits of adopting feed-in-tariffs in Germany don’t end with personal profit, “Germany created 280,000 new jobs since implementing this incentive and is today at the forefront of innovation in the solar energy industry.”
The same program that rewards customers for generating their own electricity also allows the utilities to reallocate the cost of buying it by spreading it out to all of their customers.
“That price increase was 1.38 [Euro] CENTS per kilowatt in 2008, a price increase of less than five percent.”
Stated another way, the program adds just $1.69 to the average German’s monthly electric bill. The average electricity price increases slightly for everyone but Sebastian emphasizes, “This is not a tax and spinning it as such is attempting to make a deliberate distortion.”
This price increase does not go on forever: “It is temporary and when the newly installed generators pay for themselves which is over a 20 year period, the price increase will phase itself out.”
Tellingly, 97% of all Germany’s solar power is captured using solar photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV is highly efficient under the most stressful conditions offering very little sunlight and little water.
Germany receives about 60% of the sunlight that the United States receives, yet even the brightness of a cloudy day provides enough light for the PV cells to generate electricity.
And since the only water required by PV cells is for cleaning the panels from time to time, a little rain acts as an automatic maid.
America invented this technology, so why haven’t we capitalized and profited from it?
What do you think?
Image credit: Blog Action Day
Attending any of the AlwaysOn conferences is always valuable, obviously for the networking, but especially for the learning and GoingGreen was no exception.
