How Much Is Green Energy Costing The Germans? Green Energy Is Adding 20 Percent To Germany's Cost Of Living

Remember my earlier post this morning -- about how inexpensive electricity is in Texas? TXU is offering "free" electricity to those who switch. New residential customers can choose to have all their weekend electricity "free" or all their night-time electricity, Monday through Friday, 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. free. I'm going with night-time free electricity; I can run the air conditional all night at no charge, and lower my monthly $45 electric bill even further. On weekends, I will spend the days at Starbucks or at the pool, and leave the a/c off at home.

Meanwhile this is the German experience with "green" energy:

German consumers already pay the highest electricity prices in Europe.

But because the government is failing to get the costs of its new energy policy under control, rising prices are already on the horizon.

German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier’s predecessor once claimed that switching Germany to renewable energy wasn’t going to cost citizens more than one scoop of ice cream.

Today Altmaier admits consumers are paying enough to “eat everything on the ice cream menu.” The government predicts that the renewable energy surcharge added to every consumer’s electricity bill will increase by 20 percent.

And because energy underpins everything else in the economy, one can safely say that "green" energy will raise the cost of living in Germany by 20 percent over time.

The linked article continues:

This year, German consumers will be forced to pay €20 billion ($26 billion) for electricity from solar, wind and biogas plants — electricity with a market price of just over €3 billion. Even the figure of €20 billion is disputable if you include all the unintended costs and collateral damage associated with the project.

Solar panels and wind turbines at times generate huge amounts of electricity, and sometimes none at all. Depending on the weather and the time of day, the country can face absurd states of energy surplus or deficit.

If there is too much power coming from the grid, wind turbines have to be shut down. Nevertheless, consumers are still paying for the “phantom electricity” the turbines are theoretically generating.

Go to the linked article to see just how bad this had gotten.