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Saturday, November 24, 2012

Bloomberg Asking If American Can Emulate Germany's Renewable "Success" ...

... if this is how you define success: US electric rate: 10 cents/kwh; Germany's electric rate: 30 cents/kwh and will rise another 6 cents soon as an additional renewable energy surcharge kicks in. 

I absolutely wasn't going to post/link this story [if the link is broken, it's a Bloomberg article on whether the US can emulate Germany's renewable energy "success] because .... because ... well, the reporter failed to talk about Germany's return to coal..... but some things, like burrs under one's saddle just have to be dealt with. So, let's see what the German mainstream media has to say, the inconvenient truth the Bloomberg editor failed to mention:
Germany's switch to renewable energies is driving up electricity bills across the country, with a green technology surcharge set to rise by nearly 50 percent next year [this is on top of green energy taxes already in place]. With frustration over the high price tag, it promises to become a key issue in next year's election campaign.
Germany's four leading electrical grid operators -- RWE, E.ON, Vattenfall and EnBW -- announced on Monday that they would be hiking by 47 percent the charge to consumers that goes into financing subsidies for producers of renewable energy. For the time being, solar, wind and biomass power make up a quarter of the country's electricity supply but are set to account for 80 percent by 2050. [The Germans are switching to coal in lieu of nuclear due to Japanese nuclear debacle; the demand for electricity will increase significantly by 2050, assuming Germany continues to be an exporter, so requirement for renewables will also increase.]
Germany's status as a global leader in clean energy technology has often been attributed to the population's willingness to pay a surcharge on power bills [industry is exempt -- see linked article].
But now that surcharge for renewable energy is to rise to 5.5 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) in 2013 from 3.6 in 2012. For an average three-person household using 3,500 kWh a year, the 47 percent increase amounts to an extra €185 on the annual electricity bill.
This if from Germany's most popular magazine, Der Spiegel. Just think, the US can strive to emulate Germany's renewable energy "success."

The 5.5 cent + 3.6 cent --> 9.1 cents. That's just the surcharge.

North Dakotan pay about 10 cents/kwh. In 2010, North Dakotans paid about 7.5 cents/kwh; Californians about 14.5 cents/kwh. The price of electricity in Germany (before new surcharge) is 31.5 cents. Add the 5.5 cents --> 37 cents/kwh, which is exactly what the Hawaiians pay for their electricity. For the rest of the US, the range is 7 to 14 cents. From wikipedia.

4 comments:

  1. Bruce, i just today got my Nov 2012 electric bill from MDU ( Montana Dakoa Utility.) The electric portion of the bill for 28 days using 458 KWH is $ 46.96. This is priced as Basic serv charge of .35 cents a day for $9.80. 458kwh @ .053040 cent per kwh= $ 24.28
    fppacharge of .027733 per 458 kwh or $ 12.71 and a transmission cost of .16 cents for all 458 kwh.
    or you could take the simple road and say $ 46.96 divided by 458 kwh equals .10253 cents per kwh.
    ND elec is approx 95 % coal fired..

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    1. Something tells me that 30 cent German rate is not the entire electric bill charge. There are basic service charges, etc., but I could be wrong.

      Unfortunately, electric price creep will be such that Americans won't notice it at first, until, like the Germans they notice how much they are really [over]paying.

      I really didn't want to post the Bloomberg article (I felt it did not meet Bloomberg's standards) and then on top of that, the article had an "agenda" -- failing to tell the rest of the story. But it bothered me; something didn't ring true, and the "Der Spiegel" article told a bit more how much the Germans like paying for renewable energy.

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  2. Bloomberg must think all good ideas come from Europe, a typical east coast problem looking across the pond for how things should be done. After all our country was a repository for Europe's cast offs or "the worthless" so with that history our development is far more inferior to the brilliant enlightenment of Europe.

    That may sound very negative but the Europeans too often have that idea and too many on the east coast play into it.

    Only when Europe has make a complicate mess of things is the US is called upon to come over and straighten things out. When that has happened then the cycle starts all over again.

    Kind of like the movie: Groundhog Day.

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    1. A lot of truth to that. I was just surprised that Bloomberg would publish that sort of story; it just seemed they were missing the real story in Germany about their energy issues, which the writer conveniently avoided. And perhaps that's all it was meant to be, a "feel-good" story. Of course, this will be placed in the packet of talking points for Congressmen/women who advocate for similar money-losing projects in the US.

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