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Is German energy a model for Obama?
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-11 11:32 Obama Wants to Seize Renewables For the entrepreneurs of Solar Valley, the big question is what will US President-elect Barack Obama do. Based on his comments during the election, many expect him to go down the same path Germany took in 1998.
The United States is solar power's "sleeping giant", said SolarWorld's Asbeck, and has the potential to quickly reach grid parity, the point where rising market prices for convential electricity cross falling prices for solar power. "Many parts of the United States get up to twice as much energy from the sun as Germany. They could reach grid parity years before us. And when that happens, the demand will soar. There will be no limit to the growth." Q-Cells' chairman Milner said: "We are expecting very strong business in the United States in the second half of 2009." In a speech in August, Obama pointed to Germany's succcess and pledged to invest $150 billion over 10 years in renewable energy in the United States, where solar power accounts for less than one tenth of one percent of the US supply. "Will America watch as the clean energy jobs and industries of the future flourish in countries like Spain, Japan or Germany or will we create them here?" Obama said. "It isn't just a challenge to meet, it's an opportunity to seize." Obama renewed his committed to renewable energy last week. Although controversial at first, Germany's Renewable Energy Act (EEG) made it possible for homeowners to install solar panels on their roofs and recoup the investment costs within about a decade, thanks to generous feed-in tariffs. A system producing enough power for a four-person household can cost 30,000 euros in Germany. There are now about 500,000 roofs in Germany with solar panels and 60,000 work in solar power, twice the 2004 number. Asbeck, who donated 2,394 solar modules for the roof of the Papal audience hall at the Vatican last month, welcomed Obama's plans and said SolarWorld's US orders were doubling. It has has a staff 500 in the United States. "It would be a bit immodest of us to start giving Barack Obama advice," said Social Democrat Thomas Jurk, the Economy Minister in Saxony and a leading advocate of the photovoltaic industry. "But I think if you don't have the courage to take the first step, you'll never reach the goal." |
