American critics of Energiewende regularly announce its approaching demise. A hypocritical article in the Wallstreet Journal announced that Germany will spend €1 trillion on its’ renewable energy experiment by 2040, without mentioning that a large portion of that money was for electric grid upgrades that would be needed anyway. Nor did the author disclose the fact an even larger sum (€90 billion a year) would have gone to fossil fuels. Similarly, Forbesmocked Germany’s slight rise in CO2 levels, without mentioning they are already 23% lower than the 1990 benchmark set by the Kyoto Accord. (The author’s country, the US, is still 5% above that target.) Their carping does not explain how Germany became Europe’s powerhouse and the fourth largest economy in the World. Nor does it do justice to the nation the Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) ranks #3for renewable investments. Energiewende will succeed because it is embraced by the German people.
There is no modern parallel for the pace of Chinese development. Economically speaking, China was a third world nation only decades ago. Now it has surpassed the US and enters 2015 as the World’s leading economyand biggest polluter. The other face of Chinese development is that it also leads the World in the development of renewable energy.
Climate change is upon us. The signs are everywhere, for anyone not actively denying them. So are the avenues to change our planet for the better, though some nations have not yet resolved to pursue them. So who are the most attractive nations for renewable investments?
PetersenDean claims 7 of the 11 Board members displayed on Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) homepage are from “Chinese-based manufacturing and affiliated companies” and SEIA represents Chinese rather than American interests. They are calling upon the Board to resign and are “asking for an ethics investigation under the SEIA by-laws, including Article 10.” To which SEIA responded that PetersenDean is not one of their members and their allegations are “a PR puffball.” What’s Behind PetersenDean’s Allegations?
MPOWERD makes solar lanterns, but they are also much more than that. They were founded in response to the Haiti earthquake. So I interviewed the President, Scott Kling, about how MPOWERD lights up people’s lives.
