Exorbitant ‘Green’ Energy Costs Responsible For German Industry’s Economic Meltdown

The rocketing power prices caused by Germany’s headlong wind and solar rush are crushing its once thriving industries, including outfits like Mercedes-Benz.

German households and businesses are already suffering Europe’s highest power prices; following Putin’s assault on Ukraine, German power prices rocketed, further still, hitting a record 40 US cents per kWh. Power rationing is already routine, with worse to come.

No country went harder and faster with its renewable obsession than Germany. And no global manufacturing giant has fallen so far, so fast.

Numerous, and often large, industrial users – like BASF, Wacker and Siltronic – have already vacated the country, headed for low energy cost countries like Singapore and the USA, a process that began over a decade ago.

The idea that a critical input cost to manufacturing can be tripled without affecting profitability and employment is, as any student of economics will tell you, a nonsense.

In the piece below, Pierre Gosselin reports on the inevitable industrial decline that comes with the attempt to run on sunshine and breezes.

Rise And Fall Of The German Economy… Energy Debacle Leading To Economic Meltdown
No Tricks Zone
Pierre Gosselin
16 April 2024

Blackout News here calls the trend “alarming” and that it is “a clear sign of the worsening economic crisis. The news are based on data released by the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).

“There has been nothing comparable since 2016, the year the data was first collected,” reports Blackout News. “This development not only points to internal company problems, it also highlights the extensive economic challenges the country is facing.”

“There has been nothing comparable since 2016, the year the data was first collected,” reports Blackout News. “This development not only points to internal company problems, it also highlights the extensive economic challenges the country is facing.”

Insolvencies are even worse than during the Covid pandemic lockdown years.

“Exorbitantly high energy costs”
Analysts say the main driver behind the dire trend are Germany’s exorbitantly high energy costs, mostly due to the country’s mismanaged foray into green energies – like wind and solar – and the transition away from affordable and stable conventional energy sources like natural gas, coal and nuclear power.

“The wave of corporate insolvencies cannot be explained by poor business decisions alone. Rather, it is the high cost of energy, which is driving up operating costs in times of global uncertainty, and a tax policy that leaves little room for investment,” Blackout News adds.

Both, left and center-right, are to blame
The push to green energies, and away from conventional sources, began in earnest under the government led by Angela Merkel and her CDU center right party. The latest Socialist-Green coalition government, led by Olaf Scholz and Robert Habeck, have since pushed draconian policies that have only exacerbated Germany’s economic and energy woes.

Most experts argue that the government hasn’t been fixing problems, rather it has been making them far worse. It simply refuses to acknowledge the reality.

Industrial exodus…country needs more than just hope
“The current crisis demands far more from political decision-makers than just hoping for a calming of the market,” adds Blackout News. “Comprehensive measures are needed…the measures include a reduction in energy costs.”

Blackout News recently reported on the “industrial exodus” as “Germany’s economic crisis forces traditional companies to flee.”
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