On any given day, half a million North Americans go through a blackout that lasts 2 to 4 hours. The US economy loses $150 billion a year through these incidents. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, the average Western European loses minutes, rather than hours, through annual power loses. The average German hasn’t experienced 20 minutes of per customer annual power losses for years and, in 2014, Germany broke the 12 minute barrier.
Close to 29% of Germany’s electricity, during the first half of 2014 came, from renewable sources. It was a new record. Ironically, the story was released the same day that Bloomberg published: German Utilities Bail Out Electric Grid at Wind’s Mercy. Listening to some of the critics of Energiewende, one sometimes gets the impression the nation’s utilities are on the verge of collapse. In reality, Germany has one of the World’s most efficient grids.
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