Deutschland is kicking the world's ass in the renewable energy arena. Of all the rich, populous nations across the globe, only Germany is phasing out dirty and dangerous power sources fast enough to adequately combat climate change. Since deciding to transition away from nuclear and coal power in the wake of Japan's nuclear crisis at Fukushima, Germany has been adopting clean energy at a pace that's simply unprecedented.
Critics lambasted the nation's move to shelve nuclear and embrace solar, claiming it would only lead the country more reliant on coal in the end. But by instating policies like that incentivize small, individual, and community solar projects (solar panel owners and co-owners get paid for providing power to the grid), Germany is proving them dead wrong. Distributed solar power is rising, and fast, and it's poking holes in the outdated central power plant model that much of the world still leans on.
In the first half of this year, Germany installed a record 4,300 megawatts of solar capacity. Sometime in May, half of the entire nation was running on sun power. Half. And this is Germany; one of the most heavily industrialized nations on the planet. Europe's biggest economy. Running on hippie-dippy sun power.
The feat set a world record, and Germany has kept pace ever since. Now, the country has reached the point where so much clean energy is being generated that it needs to build billions of dollars of new power infrastructure to keep up with it all.
Reuters reports that Germany's government has approved plans "to accelerate the construction of 2,800 km of new high-voltage power lines to push forward the country's shift to renewable energy."
As with its efforts roll out the clean power generation, it's expanding the grid rapidly and decisively.
"Under the nationwide grid plans, the new transmission lines will be completed within four years from a previously planned 10 years and cost about 10 billion euros ($13.21 billion)."
This is much-needed; the benefits of clean energy are myriad, but in order to optimize transmission, Germany really will need a much smarter, more extensive grid that can more effectively and precisely manage supply and demand. If half the nation has solar panels on its roof, an older grid is going to be fried on a sunny day. Smart metering and a network of new high-voltage power lines will help distribute that power.
Germany's solar revolution really is the great clean energy success story of 2012. They've shown that adopting clean power en masse can be feasible and popular, and that it can help unite communities by democratizing the energy supply. Sure, electricity prices have risen some, but most Germans are fine with that. They're changing the game, and every country on the blue marble should be studying up as we head into 2013.