An Energy Role Model
Germany is showing how to get alternative energy done. Wind and solar, combined with higher taxes on carbon fuels, all while creating jobs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The biggest solar energy power plant in the world just went online in Bavaria, and is expected to quickly turn a profit. 16,000 windmills generate 39 percent of the world’s wind energy; wind and solar now provide more than 10 percent of the country’s electricity, a number expected to double by 2020. 60,000 people are employed in the design and manufacturing of wind and solar equipment. (Germany’s population is 83 million.)
“Close to 80 percent of Germans support the government’s strategy of promoting renewable energy sources and its staunch advocacy of the Kyoto Protocol’s obligations to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.”
Gas taxes have just gone up by the equivalent of 15 U.S. cents per gallon, on top of already large amounts, of course.
These are the kind of steps needed if the specter of global warming is to be curtailed, to meet the challenge if and when oil supplies start to decline, and if the Middle East is to be stabilized. It’s too bad the U.S. is letting others take the lead.
Keep Reading
Most Popular
The inside story of how ChatGPT was built from the people who made it
Exclusive conversations that take us behind the scenes of a cultural phenomenon.
How Rust went from a side project to the world’s most-loved programming language
For decades, coders wrote critical systems in C and C++. Now they turn to Rust.
ChatGPT is about to revolutionize the economy. We need to decide what that looks like.
New large language models will transform many jobs. Whether they will lead to widespread prosperity or not is up to us.
Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong?
An approach that promised to democratize design may have done the opposite.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.