Germany 100 Percent Renewables by 2050

Setting an example for all industrial nations the Germany is targeting to secure 100 per cent renewables energy by 2050, says Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Peter Saunders The Institute of Science in Society.

According to them, the UK’s Low Carbon Transition Plan falls well short of the challenges that face us. Fortunately, we need look no further than across the North Sea to Germany for inspiration. Germany is a large, prosperous, industrialized country rather like the UK in many ways.

It has traditionally relied heavily on coal for electricity generation, and has a number of nuclear power plants. But there the similarities end, they added.

They said that while the UK’s White Paper envisages the Great Britain of 2020 or 2050 as much the same as today, Germany is looking forward to a quite different future in which Germany will guarantee for itself a secure energy supply and maintain its position as a world leader in new technology.

It is forging ahead in the development and use of renewable energy; and nuclear power - seen in the UK as a major component of the future energy mix - is being phased out altogether.

The nearest equivalent in Germany to the British White Paper is a document issued by the German government in January 2009, with the title New Thinking – New Energy. Ten Guiding Principles for a Sustainable Energy Supply.

According to them, the document sets out the following objectives:

· By 2020, greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced by 40 per cent from their 1990 levels – double the UK target. (By the end of 2007 emissions had already been reduced by 21.3 per cent.)

· Energy productivity should be increased by 3 per cent every year, so that in 2020 energy will be used twice as efficiently as in 1990

· The proportion of energy that comes from renewables should be increased. By 2050, half of primary energy consumption should come from renewable sources. By 2020, the proportions
of final energy consumption, gross electricity consumption and energy used for heating that come from renewables should be double their current levels (which are 9 per cent, 15 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively).

· By 2020, a quarter of energy production should come from combined heat and power generation (CHP), again double the present level.

· The use of biofuels should be increased so that by 2020, 7 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions due to fossil fuels are eliminated. (EOM)