News -- Solar Energy and Government Policy

Solar Energy & Government Policy

Although market forces and increasing environmental awareness are slowly helping solar power to gain traction, there can be little doubt that government attitudes towards solar power have by far the greatest impact in bringing about more widespread adoption.

In countries whose governments have either ignored solar power or been outright hostile (often an indication of pressure from vested interests such as utility companies or fuel suppliers) then adoption of solar power has been distinctly sluggish. Compare this however with countries where government policy has been favourably disposed to renewable energy solutions (Germany, India and Japan for example) and the difference is striking.

The German Renewable Energy Sources Act forced power utilities to pay for all excess energy fed back to the electricity grid from solar energy systems at a rate somewhat above the standard market price and fixed for twenty years. Understandably there has been a massive rise in solar power installations in Germany, with the existing utility giants prevented by law from strangling this at birth by the usual tactic of undercutting the rate paid for surplus electricity.

As a result, Germany now meets 15% of its total energy needs using renewable technologies. However the power companies are fighting back; they initially sought to recoup their lost profits by hiking the price of energy charged to their customers, then brazenly lobbied the government with the argument that people and businesses who had installed solar panels were making the price of electricity too expensive for their other customers.

This is clearly disingenuous; the real issue is decentralization and loss of control - if every home provided for its own energy needs then those who run these powerful utility companies would be out on their ear. It's a short sighted attitude and one that compares very poorly with the stance taken by the lighting industry.

Faced with the imminent demise of a business model predicated on repeat sales of a cheap, short-lived product (the electric light bulb), the lighting industry is embracing a new future based on LED light bulbs that are both expensive and last, if not quite forever, an awfully long time.

Ironically, assuming the German government refuses to yield to the power companies, the more they play out their self-interested tactic of raising prices to recover profits (and bonuses) the more people will desert them, especially as it becomes ever more viable to install home solar panels. A classic example of how clinging to the past so often sabotages the future.

At Zortech, you will find that we have implimented the use of both a wind turbine and solar pannels, to help conserve our use of energy daily.