Broke Europeans Starting To Question Wind And Solar Scams

[Anonymous]

Too bad North American politicians like the premier of Ontario or the prez of the USA can't move beyond this expensive pipe dream.

It's been a tough week for the global warming purists.



They are getting blowback in Germany, where people are not only getting sick and tired of paying more for electricity — the same strategy that has been destroying the morale of Ontarians paying higher bills — but because people in rural parts of the country are getting increasingly restless as the government insists on building more of those wind energy monstrosities.



Let me begin with a quote from the German publication Der Spiegel:



"The goal is to get away from the turbulence found near the ground and to climb up into the Ekman layer, above 100 metres high, where the wind blows continuously. Up there, the forces of nature rage freely, creating enough terawatts to meet the energy needs of the global population hundreds of times over. Or at least that's the theory."



Yes, that's the theory.



The big picture is this: All the theories about wind and solar energy have not been working out very well for the Germans. They're paying through the nose for alternatives.



While it appeases green activists and pays handsome annual rents to farmers who agree to have turbines and solar panels on their land, those who are not directly involved in green subsidies are growing weary of all the theorizing.



Spain, as you know, is a country that hit the economic skids in the global crash five years ago and it still isn't even close to recovery.



Debts are enormous and jobs are enormously scarce. Unemployment among youth is 50%.



And in recent days, the government has decided to massively reform its alternative energy program, meaning dramatic cuts in subsidies.



The green movement is complaining, as are, of course, the companies that have benefited from the subsidies.



But the government and taxpayers can't take the balderdash any more.



Spain's industry minister, Jose Manuel Soria, is telling them the government has no choice but to cut those subsidies.



He said, "If we did nothing, the only two alternatives would either be bankruptcy of the system or an increase of the price to consumers of more than 40%."



You may remember Spain was seen as a model country for Barack Obama, who shortly after taking power in the U.S. announced to the country that he wanted to put Americans on the same green path as the Spaniards.



While Obama praised the Spanish government for being a leader in bringing green energy to its country, a Spanish economist warned that for every green job created in Spain, 10 jobs would be lost.



He tried to talk common sense to Americans, telling them Spain was the wrong country to look to when it came to economic growth.



And finally, from Australia, where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd just announced a plan to kill the national carbon tax, an editorial in the Herald Sun begins with these words:



"And so the great global warming scare dies. Around Australia, bruised taxpayers will ask each other: 'What the hell was that about?' "



You can take those words to the idea bank.



When historians look back at this era, they will write about the billions of dollars swindled out of ordinary people all over the world, in the interests of saving the world, to which we say: Chill already. Just chill.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/07/18/global-warming-scare-is-dying">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/07/18/g ... e-is-dying">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/07/18/global-warming-scare-is-dying

[Anonymous]

Germany urgently needs to scale back its financial support for the development of renewable energy to contain the spiralling costs of its move to a low-carbon economy, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday.



Addressing an energy conference in Berlin, Ms. Merkel called for reducing government spending on energy like wind and solar power to keep Germany economically competitive.



She said this should take priority over reforming the European Union's trading scheme for industrial emissions of carbon dioxide, a cornerstone of the bloc's effort to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The scheme has floundered amid low carbon prices.



Energy in Europe is much more expensive than in the U.S., in part because the boom in shale gas production has pushed down prices in North America, Ms. Merkel said.



In Germany, by contrast, fuel costs have climbed, the result of the country's shift away from nuclear and fossil fuels to energy that is abundant and considered safer for the environment.



Germany promotes the expansion of renewable energy by setting prices for the power generated, regardless whether the power is needed.



This lucrative system of support has spurred a rapid expansion of the renewable energy industry, driving up subsidy costs to around 20 billion euros per year ($27 billion).



"If the renewables surcharge keeps rising like it did in recent years, we will have a problem in terms of energy supply," Ms. Merkel said.



Despite the need to contain the costs, Ms. Merkel said, she continues to support the expansion of renewable energy to ensure Germany meets its ambitious climate protection targets, including the plan to source over 80% of electricity from renewable sources by mid-century.



Ms. Merkel said that renewable energies should continue to be treated preferentially over the electricity that is produced by coal, gas or nuclear-fired power plants

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130612-702492.html">http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-201 ... 02492.html">http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130612-702492.html

[Anonymous]

WARSAW -- Poland plans to cut renewable-energy subsidies after an economic slump boosted the budget deficit, the deputy economy minister said.





Jerzy Pietrewicz, who was named to his post in February, said he's updating proposals set out in a renewable-energy draft law in October. They'll be combined with a "more balanced economic approach" to energy, emphasizing wind and biomass plants while keeping a lid on solar photovoltaic, he said.





"We don't plan a retreat from support, but we see that progress in technology allows us to reduce rates proposed earlier," Pietrewicz said in his first interview on renewables since taking office.



Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government is attempting to ease jumps in power prices while complying with European Union rules and a court decision requiring it to adopt incentives for renewables. Poland, which produces 90 percent of its electricity from coal, aims to expand the amount of energy it derives from cleaner sources to 15 percent by 2020 from about 2 percent now.



Tusk's cabinet will vote today on amendments to the new energy law to avoid EU penalties. A final draft is expected by Pietrewicz this half after lawmakers proposed a system of feed- in tariffs granting premium rates for clean-power generators. The program would lock in payments for smaller projects, establish a tradable green-energy certificate system and set up a stabilization fund to maintain the value of those securities.



Budget Crunch



Poland estimates that the cost of state support for renewables will rise to 10.8 billion zloty ($3.4 billion) in 2020 from 5.5 billion zloty in 2014. The government budget deficit in the first quarter widened to 25 billion zloty, the most in a decade.



Subsidy cuts in Poland follow similar reductions in Spain, Italy, Germany, France and the Czech Republic, which are attempting to contain booms in solar-panel installations and stem gains in consumer power bills following the introduction of feed-in tariffs.



"Poland should definitively learn the lessons from Spain or the Czech Republic examples, where support for large solar farms resulted in serious problems," Anna Czajkowska, a London- based policy analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said today. "Even German transmission networks struggle with the recent increase of solar-power generation."

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/04/poland-plans-to-cut-subsidy-for-renewables-as-deficit-grows?cmpid=rss">http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea ... ?cmpid=rss">http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/04/poland-plans-to-cut-subsidy-for-renewables-as-deficit-grows?cmpid=rss

[Obvious Li]

the level of retardation among these greenies is simply stunning...but not as stunning as the cowardice of the politicians that that folded up, surrendered their balls and got us into this green debt mess

[Anonymous]

the level of retardation among these greenies is simply stunning...but not as stunning as the cowardice of the politicians that that folded up, surrendered their balls and got us into this green debt mess

It makes Westerners poorer and a few select companies that are friends of politicians quite wealthy.

[Anonymous]

Don't get me started on McGuinty's pricey green energy fiascos.

[Rambo Wong]

Seoulbro is macho cool

[DKG]