Germany can become the world’s first developed nation to end the dependency on Fossil Fuel. The Federal Environment Agency says that they might by year 2050 supply its entire electricity requirement through renewable sources.
The renewable energy track record for Germany is already placing the country as a global leader in both exporting clean technology as well as generating electricity from alternative sources of energy. In the recent 15 years, clean technology sources have tripled from 5 to 16 percent. So currently, 16 percent of the country’s total energy demand is derived from solar, wind as well as other renewable sources.
Jochen Flasbarth who is the President of the Federal Environment Agency says that it is possible that Germany will transform into a nation deriving all its energy from renewable energy by 2050. He was also the one who presented the study, showing both the ecological and technical plausibility of leaving fossil fuel behind.
He refers the target as being extremely realistic “it’s not a pie-in-the-sky prediction” given the current state of technology. He also predicted that the speed of conversion will gradually increase as new technology is introduced to the market and a greater public acceptance starts to proliferate.
The current Renewable Energy Act has successfully made Germany a global leader in photovoltaic installed capacity. This year, an additional 5,000 MW of photovoltaic capacity is expected to be installed. This will bring the total installed photovoltaic capacity to 14,000 MW.
Moreover, Germany is currently the world’s second-largest wind power producers following the United States of America. In the last decade roughly 300,000 renewable energy jobs have been created in Germany.
The current goal set by the government is to cut greenhouse emission by 40 percent for the period 1990 to 2020, followed by 80 to as much as 85 percent by 2050. Flasbarth says that the goal can be met if Germany abandons their dependency on fossil fuel and changes fully towards renewable energy sources.
Electricity production represents around 40 percent of greenhouse gases in Germany. This is mainly accounted by coal-fired power plants. Flasbarth, claims that going for green energy by 2050 has several economic benefits. This does definitely include the manufacturing industry involved in export.
A colossal growth in employment would also be seen if the country would go for renewable energy sources. The future generations would also have less to worry about concerning climate change.
Flasbarth argues that other countries are equally going for green energy. It was previously reported by the UK’s Centre for Alternative Technology that Britain would try to stop its greenhouse emissions by 2030.
Source: Alliance
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