Articles by

Craig Morris

Power to heat gets going in Germany

By

Craig Morris

The city of Münster plans to use excess electricity on the grid to generate heat, which can be easily stored.

Two new renewable energy apps

By

Craig Morris

IRENA has come up with a truly amazing app for global renewable energy statistics and information. In addition, an Italian has released an app that helps you find wind farms worldwide.

France begins nuclear bailout

By

Craig Morris

The French government announced plans to inject cash into Areva, the firm that constructs nuclear plants in the country. It is a desperate attempt to ward off the inevitable: bankruptcy.

Germany to miss its renewable energy target for 2020

By

Craig Morris

The main takeaway is that the growth corridor – 2.4 to 2.6 GW of annual new capacity net for onshore wind – will produce a much higher share of renewable electricity, but the target will not be met for total energy, cogeneration, or greenhouse gas emissions.

Update on German medical investigation of wind power

By

Craig Morris

Two weeks ago, we published a review of reports – all of them from outside Germany – on the GMA’s recent resolution on the health impacts of wind turbines. It is worth noting that there have been no additional German reports since that publication.

Energiewende doesn’t translate as “energy mess”

By

Craig Morris

The desperate attempt to reframe the Energiewende as an “energy mess” shows what the real threat is: Germany is poised to prove that a low-carbon future without nuclear is the best option for a thriving industrial country.

Zero German coal plants as a reaction to Fukushima

By

Craig Morris

Second, there has been no surge in coal power during the nuclear phase-out. In fact, total coal power production (both lignite and hard coal) fell by six percent last year alone.

German power bills are low compared to US average

By

Craig Morris

Germans consume only a third as much electricity as Americans do. Their power bills are thus not so large.

Germany proving skeptics wrong on renewables

By

Craig Morris

With more than a quarter of the country’s electricity now coming from renewable sources, Germany’s energy transition – or Energiewende – is delivering reliable electricity, reducing emissions, and even decreasing overall costs. To see that, all we need to do is look at the data.

New community wind farm in UK is largest ever

By

Craig Morris

This month, construction of the Beinn Ghrideag wind farm was completed. In the next few months, three 3 MW Enercon wind turbines are expected to start power production. A comparison with a recent German committee project is illustrative.

How big can a community wind farm be?

By

Craig Morris

A few weeks ago, 360 German citizens completed and 82.3 MW wind farm consisting of 24 wind turbines. The project even included a transformer station, which the community project financed completely on its own.

Solar twice as expensive in US as in Germany

By

Craig Morris

Here, we see that the price of a completely installed solar array has been and continues to be considerably cheaper in Germany than in the US. The gap seems to have been around two dollars all along. Now that the price in Germany has fallen to two dollars, solar is now twice as expensive in the US as it is in Germany.