Editors’ Note: Although the German experience is one we should all be aware of, problems in California, Oregon,  and Texas are closer to home. That underscores the need to elect conservatives to the Arizona Corporation Commission. We need dependable cheap power that is not weather dependent. Utility companies often seek government favor since they are highly regulated and if they can get subsidies, it is easier than sound business practices. In short, don’t expect private utility companies to protect your interests. They will do what the government wants them to do.

In Germany, they call it the “Energiewende,” meaning energy transition, and it doesn’t work.

Germans have been forced to come to grips with sober energy reality after binging on more than half a trillion Euros of so-called “alternative” energy, such as wind turbines and solar panels.  This dramatically increased the price of electricity and created a serious risk of blackouts.

Germany actually just announced plans to reactivate coal plants to provide reserve power and lower the risk of blackouts during the coming winter and years to come.

Bloomberg reports that:

Germany’s coal phase-out plans face a potential setback after the energy regulator predicted the country will need a lot more fossil-fuel power plants on standby to help keep the lights on in the coming years.

The need for so-called reserve capacity to cover shortfalls in wind and solar generation during the 2026/27 winter period is set to reach 9.2 gigawatts, double the amount put aside for the last heating season, the regulator said Tuesday. That’s even more than the 8.3 gigawatts of mainly coal-fired backup deployed in 2022, when Russia curbed pipelined natural gas supplies to Europe.

The solution the German government is pursuing is no solution at all — offsets!

Reuters reports that German  “coal-fired power plans will be reactivated and the government will make proposals by summer next year on how to offset increased carbon dioxide these plants will generate this winter.”

Germany will purchase some kind of offset certificates that will have no meaningful impact on the fact that German coal plants burn brown lignite, which is the dirtiest and least efficient variety of coal.  It is far inferior to the cleaner-burning hard black anthracite mined in America.

The German energy economy has fallen victim to conflicting Green ideologies.

As Germany invested a fortune in wind and solar which are unable to meet its energy needs, it simultaneously shut down clean, safe, functioning nuclear plants that were already paid for.

Germany provides a powerful energy lesson in what not to do.

Will America learn in time?

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This article was published by CFAT, The Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, and is reproduced with permission.

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