Germany makes huge and effective effort on energy efficiency

Originally posted by humy
At least at some time eventually in the future, it wouldn't be a 'high' price by any stretch of perception because the advances in renewable technology would eventually make it extremely cost effective.

my father built a wind turbine but it does not produce electricity. I have often thought of the idea , all one would need is a turbine (easy to make from plastic guttering, some earth magnets and copper wire to generate the electricity from the magnetic field, a diode to limit the flow of electricity in one direction (you dont want your batteries powering your turbine), a battery bank to store the electricity and an inverter to convert the 12vdc to 240 a/c and you could well run a little lighting circuits for a semi detached house as you would only be drawing current at night time.

Originally posted by FabianFnas
I don't think so. Possible, perhaps, but who want to pay the high price?

Whether or not it will happen depends partly on politics, but they currently have the most progressive policies around, so if it will happen anywhere it will be in Germany.

As for the 'high price', renewables are already cost competitive with alternatives. The problem is that fossil fuels tend to be the established large companies with the political power whereas renewables tend to be smaller companies or even individuals with relatively less political power.

It does however take time to change the whole power infrastructure of a country, and it doesn't always make sense to close down a power station that has already been built and invested in etc.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Whether or not it will happen depends partly on politics, but they currently have the most progressive policies around, so if it will happen anywhere it will be in Germany.

As for the 'high price', renewables are already cost competitive with alternatives. The problem is that fossil fuels tend to be the established large companies with the political po ...[text shortened]... always make sense to close down a power station that has already been built and invested in etc.

You are probably right. Or not. I don't know. I don't think I have the total picture of their situation either. Or I might be right. On a chance...

And this I agree completely. The solution is political, not scientific. If their politicians don't move, then nothing will happen.

Originally posted by FabianFnas
You are probably right. Or not. I don't know. I don't think I have the total picture of their situation either. Or I might be right. On a chance...

And this is part of the problem. The cost of solar and wind has dropped dramatically in the last few years, and most people simply don't know what that cost is in relation to alternatives. They tend to assume that renewable's are more expensive but do not actually check.

The biggest factor for small scale solar, is whether or not your local utility is willing to buy extra power off you during the day and sell it back to you at night. This solves the storage problem which is a large part of the cost of having an off grid solar system.
Germany has this policy and this is why they are the most successful in terms of solar.
Here in Cape Town, they are 'thinking about it', which means they are trying to delay it because the municipalities derive quite a lot of their income from selling power so it is not in their best interests to encourage people to install solar power, even if it is the cheaper option.