Germany's Transformation into a World Leader for Renewable Energy
On October 20, the Energy Conversation hosted Mr. Mario-Ingo Soos, Counselor on Environment and Energy at the German Embassy & Dr. Jeffrey Michel, an electrical engineer working in the international power meter industry. Soos and Michel discussed Germany's Transformation into a World Leader for Renewable Energy.
German policies have permitted renewable energy priority access to the grid, priority transmission and distribution, a guaranteed market, guaranteed payoffs (differing by technology and plant size), equalized costs among grid operators (passed to consumers), and an annual decrease in payments.
The result has been an explosion of renewable power in Germany, thriving new industries, more than a hundred thousand new jobs, reduction of CO2 emissions, and a cleaner environment.
However, intelligent power management, such as smart metering, makes renewable energy usage considerably more effective (as we learned from FERC Commissioner Wellinghoff), but is not yet in use in Europe.
We learned about Germany's technological advancements, discussed American innovations in intelligent power management and saw how the two will meet to turn the corner on the next phase of our transition into diversified power use.
An .mp3 of the event is available for download here
