Germany’s push for green energy putting stress on consumers

Germany’s attempt to transition away from fossil fuels and shut down the country’s nuclear power plants has proven more arduous than originally anticipated.

Over 30 wind turbines off the Coast of Borkum Island in the North Sea won’t be operational until next year, and the project is currently running into some costly obstacles. As the newly constructed turbines turn, they remain unconnected to an energy grid in desperate need of expansion. And despite the country’s best efforts, carbon emission levels actually rose last year! (Reserve coal-burning plants were forced to go back online in order to close the gap in energy supply and demand.)

In the meantime, German families are being hit by rapidly increasing electricity prices, to the point where an alarming number can no longer afford to pay their monthly utility bills. Small business owners are growing worried that rising energy costs will essentially put them out of business. Some energy-intensive businesses have even begun to shy away from Germany for fear that they’ll be at a disadvantage on the global market.

“Often times, I don’t go into my living room in order to save electricity,” says Olaf Taeuber, a small business owner in Berlin. “You feel the pain in your pocketbook.”

Taeuber relies on a single five-watt bulb to light his kitchen when he comes home from work. In times of emergency, he switches on a neon tube, which consumes all of 25 watts.

So what you probably use to light your closet, Taeuber uses to light his kitchen!

Taeuber is only one of a number of Germans suffering to survive the country’s ambitious energy reformation.  But because the project has unilateral political support, there has been no publ backlash during the current election campaign.

In the emotional aftermath of the nuclear disaster in Japan back in 2011, Chancellor Merkel, of the conservative and pro-business Christian Democrats, decided to make a push for green energy. It calls for Germany to close all nuclear power plants by the year 2022 and transition almost entirely to alternative energy sources by 2050.

The chancellor’s gamble could prove to be her most lasting domestic legacy – or it could turn out to be an utter failure!

According to government estimates, the final cost of the project is expected land somewhere around $735 billion. Yet as the project’s variables have grown, so too have the costs for consumers.

Can't there be a way to transition towards renewable energy without hurting people and families? NRGLab thinks so. Visit nrglab.asia to see what we've got cooking up in innovative green technology.


green energy, coast of Borklum island, NRGLab, coal-burning plants, Chancellor Merkel, fossil fuels, nuclear power plants