No wonder they lost the war!

What an amazing people the Germans are, so clever, so organised, so efficient, so that one can say with absolute accuracy that all their myriad mistakes are at least well-thought out mistakes.  All careless mistakes are strictly verboten!  I raise this hoary old truism because I am still soldiering on through Maj. Gen. Melvin's superb biography of von Manstein in which, despite the Field Marshal's almost super-human efforts, the mistakes keep piling up.  (I shall be writing more on this but so far I have only reached Stalingrad - and my heart is bleeding for all concerned.)

So let us turn from strategic folly to mere monetary and pseudo-scientific folly, and let us all be honest, in our different ways we are all as daft as the Germans.  Not for the first time I am obliged to that rumbustious Dane, Mr. Bjørn Lomborg, who continues in his very naughty practice of pouring buckets of commonsense over idiots!  In this case, the idiots are German but look no further than Southwark Crown Court in a few weeks to spot a particularly ripe British example.  (Mind you, with a name like Huhne, I can't help feeling there's a bit of Hun in him!)  Anyway, back to Deutschland where, Mr. Lomberg tells us, they have finally decided to cut all their subsidies to the green lunacy we call 'solar panels':

Germany once prided itself on being the “photovoltaic world champion”, doling out generous subsidies—totaling more than $130 billion, according to research from Germany’s Ruhr University—to citizens to invest in solar energy. But now the German government is vowing to cut the subsidies sooner than planned and to phase out support over the next five years. What went wrong?

I can hardly wait:

Subsidizing green technology is affordable only if it is done in tiny, tokenistic amounts. Using the government’s generous subsidies, Germans installed 7.5 gigawatts of photovoltaic capacity last year, more than double what the government had deemed “acceptable.” It is estimated that this increase alone will lead to a $260 hike in the average consumer’s annual power bill.

Well even I could have told them that and I wouldn't know the difference between "photovoltaic" and a Box Brownie!  You see, this is a point I can never quite get across to the HAFs (Hot Air Fanatics) who are forever demanding to know my scientific credentials and I keep telling them I don't have any or need any.  All you have to do when faced with the latest 'End of the World is Nigh' merchants is to ignore them and do the opposite of what they preach.  Certainly when it comes to grandiose schemes involving 'loadsa' money you must instantly clutch your wallet and make for the exit because they couldn't spell the word 'economics' and they think a balance sheet is a something that keeps weighing machines neutral.  The sort of monster cock-up described by Mr. Lomberg could have been seen coming decades ago:

Germany’s enthusiasm for solar power is understandable. We could satisfy all of the world’s energy needs for an entire year if we could capture just one hour of the sun’s energy. Even with the inefficiency of current PV technology, we could meet the entire globe’s energy demand with solar panels by covering 250,000 square kilometers (155,342 square miles), about 2.6 percent of the Sahara Desert.

Unfortunately, Germany—like most of the world—is not as sunny as the Sahara. And, while sunlight is free, panels and installation are not. Solar power is at least four times more costly than energy produced by fossil fuels. It also has the distinct disadvantage of not working at night, when much electricity is consumed.

In the words of the German Association of Physicists, “solar energy cannot replace any additional power plants.” On short, overcast winter days, Germany’s 1.1 million solar-power systems can generate no electricity at all. [My emphasis] The country is then forced to import considerable amounts of electricity from nuclear power plants in France and the Czech Republic.

And, poor things, they can't even depend on their own nuclear power stations because, as I told you a few weeks ago, the 'Kaiserin' has shut them down.  Still, perhaps, it gives them a warm feeling of moral superiority.  If so, it is the equivalent of the man who is proud of his 5 cm willy:

Moreover, this sizeable investment does remarkably little to counter global warming. Even with unrealistically generous assumptions, the unimpressive net effect is that solar power reduces Germany’s CO₂ emissions by roughly 8 million metric tons—or about 1 percent – for the next 20 years. To put it another way: By the end of the century, Germany’s $130 billion solar panel subsidies will have postponed temperature increases by 23 hours. [My emphasis]

A whole 23 hours over the next 88 years.  Gosh, that's a relief!

 

Comments

[Whyaxye]

The irony here is that if you have a massive and successful economy like the Germans used to have, then it makes a lot of sense to spend on "R&D" of alternative energy sources. That way, you are doing all you can to avert risk, and are well-placed when something becomes economically viable.

What you don't do is to put all your eggs into a basket that consists of a few wisps of straw and a theory about the future of agricultural containers.

The Germans are a funny people. (I have some insight because I foolishly married one once!) Under the orderly rational surface is a deep vein of latent hysteria. Thomas Mann captures it brilliantly in his novels. I think one aspect of this is the German susceptibility to silly theories and trendy causes.

[A K Haart]

Vicente Blasco Ibáñez wrote this about German self regard in his novel The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

They were bloated with science as with the puffiness of a toad, proud of their pedantic and all-sufficient intellectuality. Sons of sophistry and grandsons of cant, they had considered themselves capable of proving the greatest absurdities by the mental capers to which they had accustomed their acrobatic intellects.

[dearieme]

Good soldiers, crap strategists.

[Umbongo]

I don't know why the Germans are getting a roasting here for being deeply stupid about "alternative" energy. We are no better. Our prime minister gave a sterling defence of the wind energy scam (reported here http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/21/cameron-defends-wind-farm-mps ) a couple of days ago. Mind you if one's father-in-law was legally receiving £1,000/day from this fraud who wouldn't be tempted to keep one's wife's family happy even if it meant some OAPs coughing up an extra few hundred pounds for their energy needs?

[David Duff]

But we all know we're stupid, Bongers, but we all think the Germans are hyper-efficient!