pexelsThis weekend Germany managed to produce the majority of its power from renewable sources, something most countries can only dream of.
In fact, they produced so much green energy that they actually had to pay people to use it, because power prices went negative for a few hours.
According to The Huffington Post, the country had such nice weather that, just after lunch on Sunday May 8, the country’s wind, solar, hydro and biomass power stations were producing 87 per cent of the country’s total energy needs.
PexelsThat figure smashes the country’s average renewable mix which last year was 33 per cent.
Managing to supply that much green energy purely through renewable sources is an amazing achievement due to the usual variances in solar, wind, and hydro power.
While renewable energy is wonderful, because it has a minimal environmental impact, it’s got one major problem – it depends a lot on the weather, which can be a bit unpredictable at times, as we well know here in the UK!
WikimediaThis mean that countries like Germany have to keep some of their traditional power plants running to compensate for the disparity.
This variance has led critics of renewable energy to claim that it will only ever have a niche role to play in future energy production.
However, that’s not stopped Germany setting themselves the rather ambitious target of becoming 100 per cent renewable by 2050.
While this may seem like an impossible dream to some, Denmark’s wind turbines already, at some points, generate 140 per cent of the country’s power needs, allowing them to export the surplus to Germany, Norway and Sweden.
A number of businesses are leading the way with green energy as well, with Tesla’s Gigafactory being powered by solar energy, and Apple pledging to become entirely powered by renewable sources.
Personally, I think the move to green energy is a great thing and more power to those trying to make it a reality, I say…
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.