What Happens When You Turn Over Your Electric Grid to Environmentalists and Bureaucrats

Once upon a time, Germany had one of the most stable and reliable electric grids in the world. Then the Germans committed themselves to green energy from variable energy sources, wind and solar. The result? From an article on the NoTricksZone blog (which draws upon reporting from Tichys Einblick):

The country now finds itself on the verge of blackouts due to grid instability, has the highest electricity prices in the world, relies more on imports and is not even close to meeting its emissions targets. Germany’s rickety and moody power grid now threatens the entire European power grid stability.

A failure on all fronts. How’s this for irony: To deal with power shortages, the German economics minister has presented a draft law to temporarily cut off charging power to e-cars! Increasingly, the Germans are exploring strategies for “peak smoothing,” which is another way of saying “targeted blackouts.” Heat pumps, electric heaters and wall-boxes, i.e. charging stations for e-mobiles, could be shut off when needed to stabilize the grid.

You’ll have to pry my gas-fired heat and internal combustion engine from my cold dead hands.

— JAB