Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

Germany's transition towards renewable energy is "on the verge of failure" according the country's Vice-Chancellor. Sigmar Gabriel told an event at SMA Solar, Germany’s leading manufacturer of solar technology, that moving the economy to green energy was more complex than previously thought, and may have to be scaled back.

In February, a group of scientists and economists told the German parliament that the green energy laws were a dismal failure. Not only were they were making energy more expensive, they also had no measurable impact on "climate protection."

In a damning verdict, they said: "The Renewable Energy Sources Act does not produce any additional climate protection but it makes [energy] much more expensive."

"Germany’s electricity prices are already the highest in Europe, 40 to 50 percent higher than the EU average and twice as much as in the U.S.,” notes Jurgen Kronig, a prominent Energiewende critic who writes for the German weekly Die Zeit.

Industry and labor also are sounding the alarm about the policy’s impact on Germany’s finely-honed export machine. Manufacturers there have adapted better to globalization than their counterparts in most other high-wage countries, but energy-intensive industries like autos, paper, chemicals and basic metals have suffered substantial net export losses in recent years. German and other European companies are looking to expand production in the United States as the shale gas boom lowers energy prices here.