Germany or the United States?

It’s been said that no good act goes unpunished! I suppose that there is a nugget of truth in that statement. Unfortunately for the US it’s a “Non Act” that will most likely get the punishment. Actually, what I mean to say is that the citizens of the US will suffer the punishment for our governments inaction. So, what’s with the headline? Well, what I’m talking about is the difference between the approach to installing solar powered electrical generation here in the US compared to what they are doing in Germany. While Germany now produces about 20% of their electricity from Wind and Solar we here in the US are hovering around 1%, if that. We derive about 8% of our total energy production from renewables with about 11% (of that 8%) from wind and 1% (of that 8%) from solar. I would like to say that I could give you a cogent explanation of exactly why that is but I would only sound like an idiot. Obviously, political and corporate forces are at the base of this disparity. There is, in the US, a large system in place to mine, transport and burn coal in order to generate electricity. That activity generates a lot of revenues. Same is true for the Nuclear industry. Renewables, which run the gamut from geothermal to hydro to wind to solar are slowly gaining but still only account for about 8% of US energy production.  While they too generate revenues they suffer from the serious drawback of being less reliable than the “base load” power generated by coal and nuclear. Therein lies the (all together now) RUB….

Just desserts..

So it would appear that in order for any type of alternative energy to be able to completely replace coal (immediately much more an imperative than nuclear) and nuclear, there will be a need to overbuild wind and solar facilities to make up for the inherit reliability issue. But if there are any consequences to be suffered when fossil fuel eventually become totally depleted (and with oil that is going to happen more quickly than most people think) then we can be sure that American and Germany will Getting Their Renewable Energy Just Desserts. Germany fairs better than the US in this scenario. All because the US is dragging it’s feet on this issue.

Sorry kids….

So, years from now (not many really) your children or grandchildren will ask you why the US had fallen so far behind the rest of the world in preparing for the depletion of coal and oil and you will be forced to say “Sorry Kids” we didn’t have the foresight or the courage to force our corporations and government to do the right thing.

ED

If you have ever wanted to make some solar panels for yourself you will need some information. It’s not hard or terribly complicated but you will need help.