Germany discovering the 'Green Monster' - Environment Min Altmaier 'We Can't Allow Electricity to Become a Luxury'.

Germany discovering the 'Green Monster' - Environment Min Altmaier 'We Can't Allow Electricity to Become a Luxury'.(Spiegel).After a year of little progress in Germany's so-called energy revolution, Chancellor Merkel recently reshuffled her cabinet to give it some fresh impetus. In a SPIEGEL interview, new Environment Minister Peter Altmaier discusses the need to inject reality into rosy assumptions and defuse anger sparked by the turnaround's costs.

SPIEGEL: The Environment Ministry is known for sugarcoating reality, for example, by assuming that power consumption will decline despite what is actually an upward trend. Based on these kinds of forecasts, how do you intend to completely reorganize the power supply of a large industrial nation within just a few years?
Altmaier: The energy turnaround can succeed, but only if it's based on realistic basic assumptions. Every single one of our brochures mentions that we intend to obtain 35 percent of our electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020. Whether we reach this goal, and what we have to do to achieve it, obviously depends on how high our power consumption will actually be in 2020. Only someone who can realistically estimate this will also know what measures need to be taken to achieve this objective.
 SPIEGEL: The boom in solar-panel installations means that the share of the costs shouldered by electricity consumers will soon rise from 3.6 cents per kilowatt hour to over 5 cents. An average family will then have to pay some €50 more for electricity every year, not to mention the additional costs for the power networks. How do you intend to prevent an increase in electricity prices?
Altmaier: We'll have the new figures in the fall; I'm not going to speculate on rising electricity prices before then. Nevertheless, it's been clear right from the start that the energy revolution couldn't be had for free. It's also important that there are cost pressures now that we've surpassed our solar-energy goals by double the expected targets. All installed solar panels will receive financial subsidies (known as feed-in tariffs) for 20 years, which increases the price of electricity.
SPIEGEL: How are retirees and welfare recipients expected to deal with these price increases? Neither pensions nor benefits for the long-term unemployed are automatically adjusted to compensate for them.
Altmaier: I'm going to speak with social-welfare organizations about the special situation for low-income households. The price of electricity has to remain a tolerable burden. The state is being called upon to help out with this. We can't allow electricity to become a luxury. However, people are often unaware of the existence of simple cost-cutting options, such as energy-saving light bulbs.
SPIEGEL: Actually, there are other factors at play here. The socially disadvantaged often have old refrigerators that consume a lot of electricity, and they can't afford expensive energy-saving light bulbs. And now they can expect to pay even more for electricity. By contrast, the kitchen appliances of high-earning business owners and senior civil servants are usually state-of-the-art. What's more, some of these individuals have solar panels on their roofs, which allows them to cash in on the subsidies. Under these circumstances, do you think the energy revolution will become the next social issue?
Altmaier: We'll have to prevent that from happening.
SPIEGEL: But you still haven't answered the question of how you intend to prevent power prices from rising.
Altmaier: I see reducing subsidies for solar power as the right approach to effectively countering rising electricity prices. Subsidies for solar power may have been necessary in the beginning to kick-start the expansion of renewable energy sources. But now it's time to help market mechanisms reassert themselves.Hmmmm...." I see reducing subsidies for solar power as the right approach to effectively countering rising electricity prices"....yup and crows wear stiletto heels.Read the full story here.