# Has Germany's Committment To "Green" Energy Paid Off?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-germanys-committment-to-green-energy-paid-off/658081>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 11, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-germanys-committment-to-green-energy-paid-off/658081 "2013-05-11T15:38:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-germanys-committment-to-green-energy-paid-off/658081/1 "2013-05-11T15:38:18Z")

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Germany has spent a fortune on windfarms, solar cell arrays, and other “Green” energy sources. It has also announced its intention to shut down its nuclear power plants. yet, I don’t see that these alternative sources are anywhere near the level of replacing Germany’s main power source (coal fired thermal plants).  
So I have a few questions for German dopers:  
-is it likely that the government will alter its stance on nuclear?  
-the energy produced from solar/wind is expensive-is the subsidy of this becoming onerous to German rate payers?  
-how does the German Government deal with the enormous “sunk” costs of the “Green Energy” investments?

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**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-germanys-committment-to-green-energy-paid-off/658081/2 "2013-05-11T15:50:53Z")

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Not sure about Germany, but a decade-or-so ago Spain spent billions in an effort to be the “greenest” European country in terms of energy production (PV solar plants,etc.). Wish I had a cite, but I read somewhere that it did not turn out well.

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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-germanys-committment-to-green-energy-paid-off/658081/3 "2013-05-11T20:13:26Z")

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You may find this article from a few months ago interesting:

Germany and Spain Move to Curb Green-Energy Supports

[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323478004578304181995426900.html](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323478004578304181995426900.html)

A few relevant quotes for those that don’t want to read the entire article:

> [@](#):
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> More than a decade ago, Germany and Spain created similar laws to aggressively promote the adoption of renewable energy. The two countries were again marching in step on Thursday—this time to fix a web of subsidies and compensations they created for green energy that had the unintended effect of driving up household electricity bills.

> [@](#):
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> Renewable-energy producers “are going to receive less revenue, but these measures are better for consumers” said Energy Minister José Manuel Soria.

> [@](#):
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> Renewable-energy companies said that the government was backing away from previous promises that it would ensure them a reasonable return on their investments.