Craig Morris: Citizen-owned green power in Germany

By Craig Morris

In the US, the growth of renewables remains largely dependent on the involvement of utilities, with average Americans not able to become power producers. Not so in Germany, whose Big Four utilities make up less than 7% of green power generation. It turns out that “private persons” (meaning individuals investing in solar roofs or purchasing shares of local solar, wind and biomass projects) own 40% of green power generators in Germany. The second biggest group is “project developers” – who collect funds from communities – at 14 percent, followed closely by “farmers” at 11 percent and “businesses” (stores and offices) at 9 percent. . . [read more]