Since the announcement of Germany’s nuclear shutdown nations around the world have been paying close attention to see if the German plan is working. The German Government decided to do away with nuclear power after the Fukishima disaster in Japan. They closed a total of 8 plants straight away and have pledged to close the remaining 9 plants by the year 2022.
The Government support of renewables in Germany has allowed them to very quickly becoming one of the world’s leading nations in renewable energy generation in an extremely short period of time.
In fact the Germans already have almost as much solar energy generation potential as the rest of the world combined.
The German idea regarding renewables has had its fair share of criticism as many experts believe that renewable energy sources are no where near consistent enough to power a large industrial nation. However the German Chancellor Angela Merkel is keen to show the world that it can be done.
And with the boost shown by recent figures I think some people will definitely be considering their position regarding how effective it can be. On Friday and Saturday of last week the German’s solar power plants generated an epic world record 22 gigawatts of electricity. That is the equivalent of 20 nuclear power stations working to full capacity.
Even though this is clearly a very short term win during that period over Friday and Saturday, the solar energy generated was able to meet more than 50% of the country’s midday energy needs.
Now whilst these facts and figures must all be taken in context it is clear that the German’s plan for renewable sustainability is off to a good start.
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