Gary Lamphier writes in the Edmonton Journal:
“For society as a whole, the costs have reached levels comparable only to the eurozone bailouts. This year, German consumers will be forced to pay 20 billion euros ($26.6 billion US) for electricity from solar, wind and biogas plants — electricity with a market price of just over 3 billion euros.”
Even those figures may understate the full magnitude of the costs, Der Spiegel says, due to the often perverse, unintended effects of state subsidies.
Interesting use of the word gouge in the article. Chinese companies gouged the Germans by providing goods and services at much lower cost.
Maybe it was the German companies doing the gouging?
Who’d have thought. Germans. En masse following one dictate. Have they forgotten their recent history so quickly?
Using diesels to spin wind turbines so they don’t rust. What a great idea!
We keep showing off the shiny new renewable energy toys and are led to believe that the subsidies cost nothing. I suppose the Germans are learning differently, or do they get subsidies to pay for the over-priced subsidized power?
The reasons utilities all heavily support the wind/solar/renewable mandates and initiatives is that they get great advertisement for being green as they go to the state utility commissions to get the rates increased to cover going green. They also get subsidies. For them, going green at higher cost is a real profit center.