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The wind industry, its parasites and spruikers, around the globe, hail Germany as THE wind power ‘Super Model’. Trouble is, in Germany – as elsewhere – the ‘gloss’ has well-and-truly worn off – and the ‘Model’ is looking more than just a little worse for wear.
The Germans went into wind power harder and faster than anyone else – and the cost of doing so has caught up with a vengeance. The subsidies have been colossal, the impacts on the electricity market chaotic and – contrary to the environmental purpose of the policy – CO2 emissions are rising fast: if “saving” the planet is – as we are repeatedly told – all about reducing man-made emissions of an odourless, colourless, naturally occurring trace gas, essential for all life on earth – then German energy/environmental policy has manifestly failed (see our post here).
Elsewhere in the World, we’re led to believe that Germans love these things to bits; that the laws of economics have no application in Germany; and that they’re well on the way to a 100% wind powered future.
But, in truth, political reality has inevitably caught up with its economically and socially disastrous Energiewende: rural communities are joining forces and fighting back to protect their health and homes from incessant turbine generated low-frequency noise and infrasound; Doctors have demanded a moratorium on new wind farms to the same end; political parties are being formed to take on the insanity of Green-groupthink; and German Industry – being slaughtered by escalating power costs – is demanding an end to the madness, at least the businesses that haven’t already packed up and headed for the US where power prices are around 1/3 of those in Germany.
Then – as with every other power market that’s been perverted by throwing $billions in subsidies at wind power which (apart from what’s ripped out of power consumers and/or taxpayers) has NO commercial value – there is the crushing impact which the massive subsidies for wind power has on conventional generators.
All the above have combined in a perfect political storm, which has led to Sigmar Gabriel, its Economy Minister, declaring an end to the outlandish free run wind power outfits have enjoyed to date: putting a wind industry killing cap on German wind power capacity.
With all the petulance we’ve come to expect from the wind-cult, German Greens have reacted like spoilt brats, wailing that their beloved wind industry is as good as doomed. Here’s a couple of takes on Germany’s huge about face on its once undying support for wind power.
Germany To Abandon $1.1 Trillion Wind Power Program By 2019
The Daily Caller
Andrew Follett
8 April 2016
Germany plans to stop building new wind farms by 2019, gradually turning away from its $1.1 trillion wind power program, according to a Thursday report in Berliner Zeitung.
The government plans to cap the total amount of wind energy at 40 to 45 percent of national capacity, according to the report. By 2019, this policy would cause a massive reduction of 6,000 megawatts of wind power capacity compared to the end of 2015’s capacity.
“The domestic market for many [wind turbine] manufacturers collapses completely,” Julia Verlinden, a spokesperson for the German Green Party, told Berliner Zeitung. “With their plan, the federal government is killing the wind companies.” Verlinden goes on to blame the political influence of “old, fossil fuel power plants.”
Germany’s government, however, has been very supportive of wind power.
The government estimates that it will spend over $1.1 trillion financially supporting wind power, even though building wind turbines hasn’t achieved the government’s goal of actually reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Germany created lucrative subsidies and tax benefits for wind power in 2011 after it decided to abandon nuclear power entirely by 2022 following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan. German utilities are already suing the government for $21 billion over the nuclear shutdown plan.
Electricity from new wind power is nearly four times as expensive as electricity from existing nuclear power plants, according to analysis from the Institute for Energy Research. The rising cost of subsidies is passed onto ordinary rate-payers, which has triggered complaints that poor households are subsidizing the affluent.
Nuclear power made up 29.5 percent of Germany’s energy in 2000 — in 2015, the share dropped down to 17 percent.
The Daily Caller
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German Government ‘Plans To Stop And Reverse Wind Power’
The Global Warning Policy Forum
Frank-Thomas Wenzel & Berliner Zeitung
8 April 2016
[Translation from original German article by GWPF]
Frankfurt am Main – If the green energy plans by the German Federal Government are implemented, the expansion of onshore wind energy will soon come to a standstill and then go into reverse.
It is a success story: According to figures by the Federal Network Agency, in the twelve months from February 2015 to January 2016 new wind turbines with a net capacity of nearly 3,600 megawatts were installed.
What is the future of wind energy in Germany?
This depends entirely on political developments. In early March, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel presented a draft for the amendment of the Renewable Energies Act (EEG). The new rules regulate the subsidy levels for renewable energy. The new regulations are to be adopted in coming months. The draft says, inter alia, that the amount of renewable energy in the electricity mix will be limited to a level of 40 to 45 percent by 2025. At the end of last year the level was already nearly 33 percent.
What does this mean for the expansion of wind energy?
A study by consultants ERA on behalf of the Green Party’s parliamentary group concludes that under these provisions the development of wind energy will collapse fairly soon: A target of 45 percent would mean that only 1500 megawatts could be installed annually after 2018, according to the study. That’s less than half as the average of wind energy installed in the past five days.
How does this affect the amount of electricity produced?
The 1500 MW of new-built wind turbines would be insufficient even to replace older ones against new ones, the ERA-authors write. This means that wind generation capacity is actually shrinking. “As a consequence, there will be an economic stagnation of electricity from onshore wind energy already in the 2020s”, the study claims. From 2022 onwards, the amount of wind power will begin to shrink. With a 1,500 megawatts limit the government would undermine its own goals of a so-called expansion corridor of 2400-2600 megawatts.
What would the 40 percent cap mean?
A 40% cap for wind energy completely stop the construction of new wind farms by of 2019, according to the ERA study. Overall, this would reduce onshore wind power by almost 6000 megawatts compared to the end of 2015 – which would mean a massive slump in wind power generation by 18 terawatt hours.
What does this mean for companies that build the plants?
“The domestic market for many manufacturers collapses completely,” says Julia Verlinden, spokesperson for Energy Policy in the Green Party’s parliamentary group. “With their plan, the federal government is killing the wind companies.” This although wind energy is a cost-effective technology which can replace nuclear and coal power plants, she adds.
Who are the vested interests behind the government’s new plan?
Julia Verlinden claims that Energy Minister Gabriel seeks to protect “old, fossil fuel power plants against green competition”. There is a core of truth in this argument. It’s about power plants by the big energy companies RWE, Eon, EnBW and Vattenfall. All four companies are badly damaged, because they have relied too long on coal and nuclear power. As a result, these sectors are now threatened by massive job cuts. Trade unionists are putting pressure on to support these companies. Moreover, the Quartet are to bear the costs for the demolition of nuclear power plants and the disposal of nuclear waste.
What plans for the transformation of energy mean?
“With the planned EEG amendment Sigmar Gabriel wants to set himself a monument as the wrecker of the green energy transition,” said Green Party Vice Oliver Krischer. While the rest of the world is investing in solar and wind power, Germany’s federal government is going into reverse.
Global Warming Policy Forum
The usual understated response from the Greens:
“The domestic market for many manufacturers collapses completely,” says Julia Verlinden, spokesperson for Energy Policy in the Green Party’s parliamentary group. “With their plan, the federal government is killing the wind companies.”
What Julia might like to consider is how throwing $1.1 trillion at a wholly weather dependent power source, that requires 100% of its capacity to be backed-up 100% of the time by conventional generation sources, ever made any economic or environmental sense.
But that would be to add logic to an analysis that wind-cultists can’t bring themselves to make. No, far easier to rant and wail. What Sigmar Gabriel has done, isn’t about killing industry, it’s about economic triage: the wind industry isn’t a business, it’s a subsidy sucking parasite, which if left unchecked will drive real businesses to the wall. Germans have finally worked it out, much to the horror of the wind industry and its beleaguered band of worshippers – their German experiment has manifestly failed; and all they can do now is howl.
STOP THESE THINGS 
Wind endergy has sliced almost half of the pie at 40-45% contribution to Germany’s National Capacity and it simply doesn’t work not at 1% or 100%. It’s not ‘GREEN’ energy. ‘Green’ is an emotive, feelgood label and just pure manipulative advertising. When I see the words Green Party or meet a Green Party spokesperson I no longer think, hmm environmentally friendly; I think GREED Party, environmentally nasty.
Too many for too long across all our nations are demanding a piece of this wind energy percentage and the accusations, scare tactics and cover-ups have flung like dung from the beginning ie you’ll be responsible for green house gasses, don’t you want jobs, don’t you want jobs for rural/country kids, we’ve had to lay off workers because the RET’s too low, this is a triple x listed company on the exchange, you are not supporting the company with this attitude, we don’t have gag contracts, to don’t name names; all of which and more have been presented for nearly ten years dealing with wind farms; including we don’t emit harmful noise, vibrations, radiations or pollution.
The greed of this industry and it’s supporters is phenomenal and for our governments wising up to the scam to sit back and accept being accused of ‘killing’ the industry while still paying subsidies and still permitting the construction of further turbines is utterly ludicrous. The writing is on the wall to stop wasting our rural communities; stop hurting our countries poorest, our countries small and large businesses and our societies which are being bled dry by the cost and are the ones literally being ‘killed’. Wind Industry and it’s supporters can’t profit if no-one accepts or buys their dodgy too expensive, unreliable product.
Turn off the lights, light a soy candle and protest.
We must always keep in mind that the “pseudo-Green Movement” is merely a cover for the neo-Marxist narrative that dominates the group-think of European Progressives and their anti-Growth Agenda.
A very interesting and accurate statement from this article is the one made by the German Green’s party that ‘1500MW new-built wind turbines would be insufficient even to replace older ones against new ones.’ That is a very significant issue which is largely missed – these turbines need to be replaced every few years, when this happens its not replace like with like, larger turbines are used, but they do not last any longer.
The need to replace these turbines so often is an added money sucking process which the industry loves – doubling up the number of turbines needed, not just new projects but doubling up by having to replace existing ones, with subsidies doubling up.
No doubt in many instances they will not be able to place the new larger turbines in the same place as those they are replacing, therefore more land has to be taken, leaving the older sites environmentally damaged for many years.
Another interesting statement made by them was the one ..’while the rest of the world is investing in solar and wind power Germany’s federal government is going in reverse.’
Well where have we heard that before – yes that’s right the Green’s here in Australia crying wolf and whimpering about how our Governments are failing to support renewables.
If these Greens stopped this howling around the world they might actually see the damage these things are doing to the very environment they say they want to save and support. They will see the damage to human health and economies, economies which are needed for governments to ensure they can support their citizens futures and their environments.
This industry will for ever be seeking subsidies, but calling it subsidies suggests its money given only to get a company off the ground, but this money being handed to them should really be called political partnerships – where one party, the industry/company, gets all the profits and the other, the financial supporter or more accurately the sucker.
Anyone with a functioning brain has to wonder why so many “wind farms” have appeared, as if overnight, and why so many more are planned to be put up. It is becoming clear that they can’t make much electricity, and that when people need it, in the evening after their workday, whatever they are producing is negligible. So why so many? Money. And lots of it. How? The CARBON CREDIT SALES RACKET. What’s that, you ask? Every time one of these noise makers cranks away, the owners turn around and FORCE the producers of real power, the kind you used to pay for for when your electric bill was 2/3 less, they FORCE these power companies to buy funny money from them, called CARBON CREDITS. You pay real money when you pay your electric bill for this game. Now, you have to figure out how to cut down on your electric use so that you can pay for gas for your car, your mortgage or rent, and still be able to eat. Forget about getting new clothes. But you pay your electric bill, or they cut your power. The so-called environmental organizations have jumped into this racket, feet first, selling CARBON CREDITS, and if you say “boo”, they will get the government to nail you with the “riot squad”, that’s the FBI in the U.S., where I live. I think enough’s enough!
Your translation of the German newspaper is correct, but one thing is missing: It is like a reflex, if there is any article or just small talking: … this is as much as two nuclear power plans (from anti-atomics and political correct journalists only ATOM-plant called). The next reflex comes, when you note, that there is no planned “time” nor “quantitiy” with wind and solar_ but the left-overs of atomic-plants will make this area uninhabitable for the next 50 million years.
Learning and self-thinking are very rare in these days
Andy, Bavaria Germany
So, Andy are you saying that nuclear powered France and Germany and Canada and USA etc are unihabitable? Last we heard all of those countries are fairly well populated and will be for the next few million years.
I am sorry, this is due to my poor English.
I try to explain in other words what I meant:
2end first:
The fans of alternative power, being confrontated [told about] with the most unreliability of wind and solar, tend to switch directly to the phrase: “But the atomic plants and there waste are so dangerous,..millions of years….”
1rst:
If any Wind Monster or a field of solar cells are put into operation (opening ceremony), it spruikers [I like this word, I I hope I use it correctly] tell the uninformed: This will Substitute so many atomic power plants.
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Please correct me, if my English is wrong
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By the way,
did you realize, that in Bavaria, our minister pushed a regulation of 10H [10 times the height] – distance for new planned wind monsters, what is nowadays about 2000m.
All the wind Industrie an Profiteurs, claim, that this would be the dead for wind power and it may end the Energiewende, because there are only e few areas left, where this distance is possible.
The most embarrassing ist, that the church leaders(!) and the Bund Naturschutz (ngo for enviroment protection) are also claiming that 10H is a fatal regulation!
Best regards to down under
Andy
THE ALIENS HAVE LANDED.
Imposing in there hundreds,
Such an army on display,
Those alien grey metal monsters
I saw while on my way.
Aliens on our shores have landed,
So tall, backs straight and true,
At night they watch through flashing eyes
Of red, at me and you.
Some have scaled the mountains,
Others near schools and homes,
Of one thing I am certain,
Those aliens have no souls.
No “whispering” from their ranks at all,
An unearthly sound they make,
It envelops each and everyone,
No more can humans take.
Three giant arms revolving,
Enveloping all around,
They’re here to ‘save the planet’,
The biggest “con” I have found.
Such hideous tall grey monsters,
Invade green and pleasant lands,
To stay for generations,
Unless the people make a stand.
These aliens feed on power and wind,
Without either, they will die,
They’re NOT environmental friendly,
They’re for profit, (at a cost), that’s WHY.
May I use this poem and give you credit? We are facing increasing wind turbine power, our Government in Alberta Is imposing a carbon tax, our country is imposing a carbon tax, and Ontario is on the verge of financial collapse all because of these things!
We know this but no one stands up and takes on these brain dead people that are selling this supposedly green idea which does not work. A lot of these companies installing the wind farms get local contractors to do the work then claim bankruptcy and do not pay the contractor. They then get bought out by a friend and the project gets finished without the contractor getting paid. As they claim that the new owner is not responsible for the bankrupt companies bills.