Germany's Energy Problems

We are not alone in our protest of green taxes on our energy bills - The Germans also have the problem.

Angela Merkel decided last year that nuclear would no longer be Germany's main supplier of power and renewables were the future.  German has promoted solar power for many years. but now it's inefficiency has caught up with it. It seems 56% of all green energy subsidies go to their solar systems which produce only 21% of subsidized energy.

The relationship is just the reverse for their wind energy projects and they're not doing so well either. For the same cost, wind supplies at least five times as much electricity as solar and even biomass plants are three times more efficient.

For a while it seemed that at least the German solar industry was benefiting from the generous subsidy rates, but the green economic miracle has, in the case of the solar industry, turned out to be a subsidy bubble.

In a country with a similar climate to Scotland, in the north at least, solar was never going to stand alone and would always need propped up by government money. I'm sure the Scottish government is taking note of Germany's renewables problem and if not, why not?

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Unclaimed Subsidies

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No matter how 'attractive' politicians try to make solar energy it would appear the average householder isn't falling for it.  Could it be that they don't believe the UK government?

Most Scots associate solar with sunshine and thus shun the high installation costs of domestic solar panel technology which they consider would be of little benefit. If solar was the way to go housing developments would be including solar in their designs.  They are not.

Add to that the fact that Scottish Renewables say they are being charged too much to connect to the electricity grid and the mounting opposition to wind farms being given the go-ahead around the north western edge of Scotland's largest national park and there's a serious threat to the Scottish government's renewables target.

Is Scotland - or the rest of Britain for that matter - benefitting from wind turbines?  No. Consumers are the losers because added to their energy bills is the cost of the huge amounts paid in subsidies to wind farm companies, two thirds of which are based abroad.  Businesses from Denmark, Japan, the US, Norway, Sweden, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany also own British wind farms and according to the Renewable Energy Foundation think tank from next year, £523m in subsidies will go to foreign companies.

Did I ask whether solar and wind energy will benefit domestic consumers in the future?  No I did not, because we all know the rip-off will continue and we're powerless (excuse the pun) to do anything about it.

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Solar Panels On The Wane

One of America's largest solar panel manufacturers, Solyndra Inc., is filing for bankruptcy and laying off more than 1000 employees.

Last year President Obama visited the Freemont plant and praised the company for their energy-saving manufacturing and he attempted to acquire a government loan for them to stay afloat.  That backfired because lawmakers called Obama's decision to support the company as "a dubious investment".

Solyndra Inc blames their problems on foreign competition which is creating products with prices that they can't compete against.  They also say that 'a slowing demand for solar panels coupled with a global market' has rendered them unable to continue.

Financial analyst Adam Krop adds:

“I don’t see anyone swooping in,” says the analyst from Ardour Capitol Partner in New York. “I don’t see this technology as very viable in the long-term."

Two other large American-based solar power manufacturers also called quits in August.

It would appear heavy competition from Chinese manufacturers has caused the price of solar panels to drop nearly 50% in 2011, yet companies here is the UK are still selling them at 2010 prices - with some increasing the cost.

Most, if not all, of the UK's solar panels are manufactured abroad and UK companies which promote them are "middle men"; thus increasing the price to the consumer some £x fold.  Now that it's been openly stated that prices have decreased 50% in the US this year has there been any reduction in the final price to consumers?  No.

Why not? Because I agree with Mr Krop.  Solar panels are not viable in the long term.  I've a friend who installed them on her house two years ago and has already spent a considerable amount of money having them cleaned.  More than her 'pay-back' fee by far she says. The cleaning of these panels involves scaffolding because nowadays nobody will go on a roof without a harness and scaffolding.  Plus this non-existent Scottish summer hasn't produced the power she was told by the salesman.

I don't blame her for trying, because she has a small holding in a very open area and she is a carbon emissions believer, yet she has donated nothing to the Grid since her system was installed so therefore she has had no income. Also she has, this 'summer' on many occasions to use her boiler to heat her home later in the day.  Fortunately, or unfortunately whichever way you look at it, she has friends who do have knowledge of solar technology and she was well warned that its installation could prove to be a liability but she likes to think she's part of the green community.

Usually what happens in America happens here and if the demand there has so dramatically reduced then...

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It Will End in Disaster

Only recently we were informed that 'solar fields' was the latest renewable energy scam - for energy consumers it's the latest rip-off.  Companies selling solar panels are flooding planning offices all over the south of England with requests for solar fields as the number of landowners leasing out their land rises.

Cornwall's farmers are jumping for joy as they celebrate the granting of planning permission for the UK's first purpose-built solar farm and a £14m loan for an even larger solar farm next to Newquay airport.  Unusually the five-acre facility at Wheal Jane faced no major objections for the erection of 6,000, two metre-high photovoltaic panels.  Of course it's the subsidies which are attracting farmers and who can blame them when handsome cheques will regularly pop through their letterboxes and their greatest effort will be nipping down to the bank to deposit them.  Farmers are being offered up to £1,500 an acre to cover their green fields with PV panels. James Delingpole has an excellent article in which he states 'any taxpayer-funded scheme to carpet that unspoilt landscape in solar panels to generate electricity at nearly three times the market cost is bound to end in disaster.'

But those who think the planet must be saved before 2020 will be pleased with the solar panel development.  It's 'green' you see.

But will the natural balance of our countryside be affected by these acres of black mirrors?

Yes, it's a field of wheat.  Scientists are claiming planting 'climate friendly' crops that reflect sunlight could offset global warming.  (Have you ever known a farmer who doesn't plant 'climate friendly' crops?)

Different strains of crops such as wheat have significantly different levels of reflectivity, or albedo, say scientists.  Selecting those that reflect the most could make summers in Europe more than 1% cooler they claim.  Under a moderate global warming scenario, a 20% increase in crop albedo could offset up to half of the predicted summer warming over Europe.

Now you may be wondering why I've combined solar farms and crops in this post. Well farms and crops kind of go together a bit like love and marriage used to do not so long ago.  But that's not my reason.

I'd like to know what the 'greenies' are going to do when the fields of the south of England are covered with solar panels and these studies on crops actually prove to be reasonably correct, because I think there is a good chance of that. It doesn't take a scientist to tell us that covering the land with solar panels will affect the natural balance of our habitat.  Not only that but we'll have to import more basic foodstuffs at possibly a higher price.  Yet the green lobby have been deafeningly silent about solar farms.

The farmers won't return to their traditional lifestyles of crop growing therefore the cost of solar fields will spread far wider than just another increase in domestic electricity bills.  But then we knew that didn't we?  And it will end in disaster.

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Free Electricity

Yes, I do mean free, or at least up to 40% of your usage could be free.

Daniel Green of the home energy company HomeSun will soon start giving away the first of 100,000 solar power systems to anyone with a decent sized south facing roof. He intends to roll out his offer over three years. HomeSun will install and maintain your free system for a period of 25 years.

Mr Green was also on Radio 4 this week explaining his reasons for such an offer. Energy companies are now compelled, for the next 25 years, to make payments to homeowners for all solar power produced. That's both power used in the home and any surpluses. Under HomeSun's scheme customers get to keep all the solar power they need, free of charge and the fees received from the energy companies - known as Feed-in Tariffs - go directly to HomeSun.

"I'm not a charity and I haven't become a tree-hugger. However, I do think we're mad not to make more use of such a great natural and free resource as the sun." My translation: "This will be a great wee earner. Electricity providers will up the costs to the consumer to cover their own costs of the Feed-in Tariffs and I cream off my share of this government-backed incentive scheme. The only losers are the consumers who won't, for various reasons, be eligible for my system."

To qualify for Mr Green's 'badge of honour' offer you require to have a south, south-east or south-west facing roof where there's no shade from trees or neighbouring building. Just a small amount of shade from trees can cut the efficiency by 50% and if your home faces north, forget it.

A very innovative person is Daniel Green and I suspect his exasperated ex-headmaster, who told him he'd never amount to much and then expelled him from his grammer school, is feeling a wee bit discombobulated this morning - if he's still alive.

All this reminds me I never had a response from the company which was determined to sell me solar panels. Maybe I asked too many questions.

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