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Development of renewable energy sources (wind and solar) in Germany
Minayeva Yelizaveta Alekseevna, student
National Research University «Higher School of Economics» (Moscow)
T
he term of «Energiewende» (German for «energy transi-
tion») is getting more and more widespread nowadays. It
appeared in 1980 and defined an alternative way to produce
and use energy. It has been planned that by 2050 Germany will
have reached «fully sustainable energy production» [8]. Some
of the sources used for renewable energy production are solar
and wind power — they are called «renewable energy sources»
or RES. However, after more than 40 years of changes Ger-
many started to face several problems, e.g. price burden for
consumers [11]. In this case, the question arises, whether Ger-
many will be able to achieve all the goals set for renewable en-
ergy? Does it use the wind and power resources available com-
petently? In this essay I am going to expand on the problems
of German usage of wind and solar energy and speculate about
its perspectives.
By now Germany already produces 56–63 % of its energy
from renewable resources like wind, water, solar and bio-
mass [14], [Fig. 2]. But it wants to reach the level of 80 % by
2050. According to the Institute for Applied Ecology, the en-
ergy from photovoltaic and wind costs only 5–6 cents/kilowatt.
It is already lower than construction of conventional power
plants [7].
Currently, Germany is 33 % ahead of the plan in building
new solar power plants and is lagging behind for 23 % in the
construction of wind power plants [Fig. 3]. It already receives
2 gigawatts of energy from wind power plants and about 10
gigawatts from solar ones [Fig. 4], [Fig. 5].
However, everything has its disadvantages. German people
pay the highest bills for electricity — their renewable en-
ergy surcharges keep growing from year to year [11]. As of
12.10.2023, the cost of electricity in Germany is 28,7 cents for
new users [14]. There are more than 300.000 consumers with
shut off electricity due to the unpaid bills. Even if social guar-
antees are paid, they are used to pay for the growing cost of
electricity.
Moreover, renewable energy sources are not the most reli-
able ones, as they depend on many factors that are not related
to people’s activity. Windy and sunny places need to be chosen
very carefully. As for 2021, the most of Germany’s windmills
are located in the Northern part of the country next to North
and Baltic seas with strong winds [Fig. 6]. If there is a scarcity
of green energy, power plants which use traditional sources are
put into operation, what affects the bills of consumers in a neg-
ative way. The government has already instructed the federal
lands to allocate areas for the construction of windmills. How-
ever, it is very difficult to find such free areas which has caused
resistance in some governments.
Manufacturers can barely cope with the grandiose plans
of the government. While the share of the necessary supply
of Germany with energy from renewable sources is growing,
manufacturers have neither time nor enough workers to
meet the growing demand. A good example is the situation
around 50 Hertz, a network operator in eastern Germany.
Due to numerous inspections, the company was able to start
construction of a strategically important site only after 17
years [15].
One more factor is that Germany itself does not have
enough sources to cover its needs for energy production. That
is why it depends on the import of sources — gas, wood, oil.
Since the beginning of SMO, Germany has been striving to
abandon Russian gas as fast as possible. Though, in July after
decommissioning of nuclear power plants, Germany has in-
creased its import of energy and it costs her 3 times as much
as the export prices — 97,20 and 38,60 euro dollars respec-
tively.
If Germany wants to completely abandon non-renew-
able energy sources, then it should increase the share of en-
ergy received from RES. Last year, wind energy provided about
a quarter of all energy, solar energy — about 12 % [1], [3].
However, Germany plans to increase the number of solar and
wind power plants. In the future, Germany wants to increase
the amount of energy from wind for 65,8 gigawatts and for 30
gigawatts from the sun every year starting from 2026 [Fig. 7].
It seems to be highly doubtful that Germany will be able to
achieve such results in the nearest future due to the political
situation and the overdue energy crisis.
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