Share this...



Normally even the German conservative media have been supportive of Germany’s shift from fossil fuels over to green energies, and most leading conservative media outlets accept that climate change is mostly man-made and thus needs to be taken seriously.

Climate science skepticism is scorned in Germany.

So it’s all the more surprising that one of Germany’s leading center-right dailies, Die Welt, came out with an article seriously challenging Germany’s Energiewende (transition to green energies).

Citing a 20-page report by McKinsey, Die Welt writes that the Energiewende risks becoming “an economic disaster” (it in fact already has) and that the opinions on the Energiewende by McKinsey are totally opposite of those held by the German government. This shows two things: the growing chasm between the German government’s view and reality, and 2) the government’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge that their energy policy has become a dismal failure.

According to Die Welt, a team of McKinsey experts examined 15 criteria and concluded: “The costs will continue to rise“, and thus contradict the German government’s claim of “stable prices”.

In fact 11 of the 15 criteria that were examined had worsened. According to the report:

The current figures available show that the previous success of the Energiewende for the most part has come from expensive subsidies. At the same time goals whose fulfilment do not depend on direct financial support are becoming increasingly more unrealistic.”

Die Welt writes that McKinsey’s conclusion “must be really painful for the government“, which had hoped to see reductions in CO2 emissions. The bitter reality is that CO2 emissions have in fact risen over the past years and today they are more than 13% over the original target.

Green jobs eroding

The Energiewende has also failed on the jobs creation front, Die Welt writes. Proponents claimed earlier that renewable energies would lead to a jobs boom. But that too has not materialized in any way, shape or form. Jobs in the sector have fallen “for the 4th year in a row – falling from 355,400 to 330,000“. The leading German national daily adds that the biggest job losses came from the onshore wind and solar sectors where 15,000 jobs were lost.

McKinsey warns that the number employed in green energy could even fall below 2008 levels!

And not only “green energy” jobs are being slashed. McKinsey also found that for the first time in 2016 jobs in energy-intensive industries were lost. Die Welt reports:

In March 2016 there were in total 15,000 jobs less than a half year earlier.”

Cost of electricity production to jump 40%

The total cost of producing electricity for the country has also surged due to the Energiewende, McKinsey writes:

The cost of supplying electricity in Germany will rise from 63 billion euros today to 77 billion euros annually by 2015. In 2010 the cost was 55 billion euros.”

This means much higher prices for consumers, who have seen their electricity prices rise to 30.38 euro-cents per kilowatt-hour. For the average German household this will translate into 335 euros of more costs every year by 2025.

Meanwhile the average European electricity price has dropped.

47.3 percent more expensive than average European power

Currently German electricity prices are on average almost 3 times more than what consumers in the USA pay.

The McKinsey report found:

In the meantime the price level for German household power is 47.3 percent above the European average.“