ADAM’S BLOG: After a session on renewable energy laws in the German Parliament, I caught up with some Greens MPs who have been at the forefront of driving the country’s transition to renewable energy economy.
Renata Kunast (r) now leads a …party that includes members such as Herman Ott (l) and Hans-Josef Fell, an author of the country’s “feed-in tariff” laws, central to Germany’s ‘energy transformation’.
Under a ‘feed-in tariff’ law, you get a guaranteed amount of money for the renewable electricity you put into the grid. This enables private households, farmers, banks and others to invest in renewable energy on their land, knowing the’ll get a guaranteed return on their initial outlay.
As a result of this Greens-driven legislation, wind turbines now dot the countryside. One electricity company we visited this morning, which services about a quarter of the country, gets almost a third of all its energy from wind alone.
Amazingly, 70% of wind power here is community owned. Individuals or groups of people get together and install a turbine, and it’s taken off like wildfire. In Australia, the excellent Hepburn Wind -http://hepburnwind.com.au/ - is leading the way in regional Victoria, but a national feed-in tariff could see a similar growth of ‘people power’ in our country.
Renata Kunast (r) now leads a …party that includes members such as Herman Ott (l) and Hans-Josef Fell, an author of the country’s “feed-in tariff” laws, central to Germany’s ‘energy transformation’.
Under a ‘feed-in tariff’ law, you get a guaranteed amount of money for the renewable electricity you put into the grid. This enables private households, farmers, banks and others to invest in renewable energy on their land, knowing the’ll get a guaranteed return on their initial outlay.
As a result of this Greens-driven legislation, wind turbines now dot the countryside. One electricity company we visited this morning, which services about a quarter of the country, gets almost a third of all its energy from wind alone.
Amazingly, 70% of wind power here is community owned. Individuals or groups of people get together and install a turbine, and it’s taken off like wildfire. In Australia, the excellent Hepburn Wind -http://hepburnwind.com.au/ - is leading the way in regional Victoria, but a national feed-in tariff could see a similar growth of ‘people power’ in our country.
