Germany has always played a large and sometimes even dominant role on the European landscape. Currently the country is taking a hard look at it’s renewable energy future and what may lay ahead. The new coalition in Germany is enacting many reforms meant to aid the development of alternative energy sources to secure Germany’s independence from foreign supplies of energy.
The country has never been able to sustain its own energy, with very limited oil fields in the North Sea and the north of Germany, Germany is a country that along with France and Great Britain championed nuclear energy at the height of its development. Adding to this are the vast resources of coal which were mined in the Ruhr area to supply this industrial melting pot. Another famous contributor to the countries energy thirst have been the Autobahn and world class automobiles rolling off production lines. Germany has today among the highest amount of automobiles per capita in the world, and a great deal of Europe’s automobiles can be found here. Add to this the fact that the country is at the centre of the European continent making it a transit point for millions of tons of goods a year and you have a big player in energy markets. This player has of late however become more of a buyer and taker of energy. Current plans including construction of an undersea pipeline directly from Russia through the Baltic Sea. This will allow Germany to continue to feed it’s thirst for Gazprom’s gas supplies.
The last administration of Chancellor Gerhard Schroder accomplished rather little in the way of forward looking energy politics. Rather the only major decision of the red-green coalition was to phase out nuclear power in the coming years. There were however little plans offered up for the future. Currently most power is still derived from a mix of coal, gas, and nuclear power. The main alternative or renewable energy sources are wind, biomass, and hydro power. Solar is also another form which is enjoying success in the country, albeit on a much smaller scale (generating under 1% of total renewable energy power in Germany).
In 2005 for example 4.6% of total primary energy supply was made up by renewable energy, with total gross electricity cosumption of that power rising to 10.2%. In 2006 , renewable energy rose by 0.6% to 5.3% (difference due to rounding) , this is up from 2.0% in 1997. Of a total of 616.000 Gwh used in 2006, 72.688 were accounted for by renewable energy. The German power situation is also another unique example, as a highly developed country Germany found prosperity in the 1960s and has continued to enjoy very high amounts of consumption of goods and electricity since then. Demand as a result has risen very little when looked at from the year on year or CAGR perspective.
Now however the new coalition government with it’s dual presidency of the European Union and G8 is looking to set a tough agenda on the supernational level. This comes after already declaring tough new standards at home. Chancellor Angela Merkel is looking to come in at a relatively early point and try and stake out a leadership position on the issues of climate change, C02 emissions, and renewable energy.
This in addition to Germany’s highly technologically skilled workforce have led to large investments in renewable energy projects at home as well as abroad. Complementing this are a renewable energy industry sprouting up all over Germany manufacturing high quality solar cells, wind tribunes, and a host of other renewable energy products. Alone the solar energy industry was worth 3.5 billion Euros in 2005 and employed over 42,500 people. Germany is consistently competing with Spain another leader in the industry for the top position amongst renewable energy producers in the world.
In tomorrow’s special we will more closely examine the domestic market and projects based in Germany…
