by Judy Collins

Created on: April 19, 2009

In 1991, a quiet but effective revolution began in Germany. It consisted of 5 paragraphs and didn't even provide any future promises (or funding), but it gave something to the average citizen that he didn't have before...commercial access to the grid. The law was entitled Stromeinspeisungsgesetz (commonly known in the U.S. as the Energy Feed-in Law). From 1991, all suppliers of electricity, including private citizens, were granted access to the electrical grid and, by law, would be compensated at an unprecedented premium for all energy sent into the network. By far, the highest commissions were paid to the suppliers of solar power, starting a race to go solar in Deutschland.

The law was revised in 2000 and now called the Renewable Energy Sources Act to include energy supplied by geothermal derivations such as geysers, natural steam, geopressurized reservoirs, etc. Perhaps not something the average person has access to, but certainly of interest on a corporate level. Ironically, most geothermal energy is not very "renewable" as it is mined faster that it can regenerate, but it is clean and efficient. There is no mistaking that this addition was added, in fact, to attract new business to the clean energy market. More importantly, the 2000 version set a time frame for new investors to 20 years. What that achieved was the insurance and reassurance that people needed before such a huge commitment to their individual projects. On the negative side, the 20 years came with decreased tariffs over time. Why decrease the tariffs? Simply put, the government had set a ceiling of 5% total energy production by the methods outlined in the original Stromeinspeisungsgesetz. Solar panels were going up all over Germany faster that you can say "sauerbraten". Although not funded directly by the government, budget considerations still had to be weighed as the electricity consumer picked up the tab for the subsidies. The tariff reductions simply mitigated the government's set budget for the project. In addition, the newer law put Germany in line with the EU's energy regulations requiring frequent review, rates reflective of overall cost, different rates based on type, different rates based on size of facility, and a generally degressively mobile payment structure. The goal of this bill was to reduce carbon emissions by 3% by 2010 and enable green electricity to become 10% of the overall energy supply by the same year. This goal was surpassed in 2007, at which point 12.5% of total energy

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