• Lugh@futurology.todayOPM
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    1 day ago

    Some people think large industrialized countries being 100% renewables is impossible, but Germany will soon prove that wrong. There’s also the idea among some that solar can’t be effective at more northern latitudes - wrong again. Solar is cheap and powerful enough to work fine in Northern Europe, it just takes a building a bit more of it than you would in sunny climates.

    Germany’s switch is being helped by the widespread adoption of cheap home solar. It’s cheap not just because the price of solar panels has decreased by 90% in the last ten years, but systems are being sold now you can install yourself, without the cost of qualified installers.

    Furthermore, almost two thirds of Germans plan to have a home solar system by 2029. Does this point to a future around the world where most people have some decentralized home electricity generation capacity?

  • HansGruber@sh.itjust.works
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    23 hours ago

    German here, yes we unexpectedly thrive with renewables, especially PV. With wind we lack a bit, and with storage.

    I guess the thrive came through soaring energy costs due to the Ukrainian war. For farmers it’s currently more profitable to rent their land to solar PV plants than sowing crops.

  • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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    23 hours ago

    I have lived in southern Germany. It is not a sunny place. If they can do this, any country can.

    All they have to do is look up where oil CEOs live a [comment removed]