Electricity: Lessons from Germany

The following Op-Ed piece appeared in the Toronto Star Oct. 4, 2004. 01:00 AM. The Toronto Star is the largest circulation newspaper in Ontario.

by Hermann Scheer

The time has come to surmount the structural blindness and technological pessimism levelled at the potential of renewable energy on both sides of the Atlantic. It is high time we spent as much effort politically, scientifically, and technologically on the development of renewable energy as we once did on nuclear power.

In Germany, we have installed 16,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the past 12 years as a result of our renewable energy law.

Last year alone, we installed 3,000 MW of wind and solar energy. In contrast, Ontario is weighing bids for only 300 megawatts.

Due to our renewable energy law, we have added more than 100,000 solar systems to rooftops from Bavaria to Berlin, and we employ nearly 120,000 people across Germany who build, install and operate solar, wind, and biomass plants.

Our renewable energy law uses fixed prices and long-term contracts as a mechanism for rapidly deploying renewable energy - the same fixed prices and long-term contracts Ontario is offering its nuclear generators. If Ontario had followed a path similar to Germany's, it could be producing 17 per cent of its electricity with new sources of energy today.

Unlike fossil fuels and uranium, renewable energy produces electricity directly. There is no long supply chain from mine to processor to power plant. There are efficiency gains along the entire fuel cycle, from the mines to the final consumer, when renewable energy is used instead of conventional fuels.

A small number of highly centralized power plants, such as those in Ontario, will ultimately be superseded by many, perhaps thousands, of decentralized facilities. These distributed generators require fewer high-voltage transmission lines than the centralized plants, decreasing the need for construction of major new transmission corridors.

It is also much easier to develop renewable energy to its fullest potential in harmony with society than it is with nuclear power. Further, the use of renewable energy allows us to avoid nuclear's inherent risks.

As renewable energy advances, residential subdivisions and businesses completely supplied by solar or wind power will no longer be a utopian vision. Hybrid systems using complementary power sources, such as wind turbines and biomass generators, are one likely possibility.

These self-sufficient homes and businesses will eliminate the power transmission expenses that make up a big part of the present price for electricity.

As the costs of fossil-fired and nuclear-generated electricity inevitably rise, the cost of renewable energy will become steadily less expensive due to mass production and technological optimization.

During the past decade, wind power costs have fallen by 50 per cent and those of photovoltaics (solar cells) have fallen nearly 30 per cent.

The slightly higher costs of today's renewable energy technologies are the cost savings of tomorrow. But we only gain those savings if we invest in renewable energy today.

Renewable energy is also an answer to future crude oil and natural gas shortages affecting transportation and heating needs - the latter a critical concern for Canadians.

DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen and Ford have all concluded that biosynthetic fuels (bio-ethanol, bio-diesel and bio-gas) can be introduced more cheaply and more quickly than hydrogen produced from new nuclear plants.

Moreover, these renewable fuels don't require the costly new infrastructure that would be necessary to produce hydrogen by means of either coal or nuclear power.

Bio-fuels can be substituted directly into the existing distribution system. Bio-fuels have the potential to satisfy the world's transportation fuel needs, according to the World Biomass Conference held in Rome this year.

Equally important, energy-efficient solar panel construction can now supply complete home heating and cooling needs.

In Germany, 3,000 homes meet all their energy needs with solar or other forms of renewable energy. They require no external energy sources.

Renewable energy supplies 85 per cent of the total energy needs of the Reichstag, the home of the German parliament in Berlin.

Imagine the legislative assembly building in Queen's Park meeting nearly all its energy needs with renewable energy. What better way to create a "conservation culture" than to begin at the seat of democratic government in the "people's house"?

Nuclear power and fossil fuels are the choices of the past. Renewable energy is the choice of the future that is here today.

Dr. Hermann Scheer is a member of the German parliament. He is also president of EUROSOLAR, the European Association for Renewable Energy, and chair of the World Council for Renewable Energy. A portion of this article originally appeared in Die Zeit.