![\"Solar](\"https:\/\/techcitement.comadmin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/SolarGIS-Solar-map-Europe-en-575x273.png\")
<\/a>Image Source: SolarGID.org<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
Recently, Denmark announced that it made the country’s 2020 goal of producing 200 MWh a shocking 8 years early. Denmark has worked on these solar power goals since 1996 and wind-power since the early 80s. By 2020, based on current projections, may achieve 1 GWh alone. And since Denmark plans to power half of its grid from offshore wind by 2020 and is halfway to that goal already, it may comfortably achieve its goal of fossil fuel independence well before it\u2019s stated goal of 2050.<\/p>\n
It is also worth noting that Denmark is home to companies like Siemens Wind Power, Vestas, and numerous other wind-power technology manufacturers. In 2009, wind power accounted for \u20ac5.6Billion ($ 7,244,585,393.11\u00a0USD), 8.5 percent of the nation\u2019s exports. Denmark decommissioned the last of its three nuclear reactors in 2006, which is ironic for the nation that generated Niels Bohr.<\/p>\n
Immediately south of Denmark lies one of the world’s other headline-grabbing nations in regards to solar power, Germany. Germany has always been hinkey in regards to nuclear power generation. Perhaps being the frontline of Europe\u2019s nuclear theatre throughout the Cold War does that to a country. In September, Germany announced that its solar capacity had hit an all-time high, reaching higher than the rest of Europe combined. Ten miles out to sea, in the freezing, gusty Baltic, 300-feet tall wind turbines at the Baltic 1 Wind Farm, plans are afoot to improve the wind power output further to provide renewable power to 250,000 households.<\/p>\n
In 1999, Germany had a solar capacity of 32 MWh. They now produce 30 GWh, a 1000 percent increase over a decade for a country that gets roughly as much sunlight as Alaska. On a good day, that’s the equivalent to 13 nuclear power plants. Between solar, hydro, and wind power, renewable energy accounts for 25 percent of Germany\u2019s power supply. Compare that to just 14 percent in the USA.<\/p>\n
Like Denmark, Germany has renewable energy goals set for 2050. The company hopes for 80 percent of its power to come from renewable sources alone. And around 50 percent of that will\u00a0 hopefully come from small companies. One of the reasons for Germany\u2019s success is allowing its citizens to receive subsidies from feeding into the grid, one that Germany\u2019s farmers took to in droves, with renewable power taking up small or negligible footprints on their land. There\u2019s nothing a farmer knows more about than getting luxuriant subsidies (besides soil-yield, area-crop ratios, and getting up ridiculously early to tend the fields).<\/p>\n
Plucky Belgium is also getting in on the act, announcing solar-powered tunnels for its railways. Not just any rail, but high-speed rail. Solar powered trains running at over 150 MPH. The future\u2019s here, the future\u2019s Belgium?<\/p>\n
Up to 16,000 solar panels have been installed in Antwerp over a two-mile stretch of Infrabel\u2019s rail lines (one of Belgium\u2019s rail operators) that run alongside a forest between Paris and Amsterdam. The panels, covering about 50,000 square feet of pre-existing tunnel, generate an estimated 3300 MWh – the equivalent of around 1000 homes.<\/p>\n
[yframe url=’http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Sc7ahEzVt1U’]<\/p>\n
Belgium as a whole has doubled its solar capacity in the last couple of years, producing around 2 GWh, despite only really becoming serious about it\u2019s renewable energy policy in 2004. However, Belgium has decreased its CO2 emissions by 8.6 percent in this short span of time, compared to Germany\u2019s 11.6 percent over the same period or its other neighbor France\u2019s who had saved 8.4 percent.
\n
\nDespite Germany and Denmark’s forward-looking policies in regards to power generation, France is one of the speed-bumps (or should I say speed-beurmp?) in Europe developing comprehensive solar-power policies. France has always been fiercely proud of its nuclear program, not surprising for the country that discovered radiation (and cancer). France’s power generation network is run by EDF (Electricity of France), a formerly government-owned corporation. EDF is the world\u2019s second largest utility company, and the world\u2019s largest electricity producer, producing 22 percent of the EU\u2019s electricity, primarily from nuclear power that accounts for some 75 percent of its output. This is in part due to France\u2019s poor natural resources. As \u00a0the French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy declared in 2004, “We do not have oil, we do not have gas, we do not have coal, but we had ideas”.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcitement.comadmin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/The-Windscale-Piles-produ-007-460x273.jpg\")
<\/a>Image Source: Guardian UK<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
A shame the ideas Sarkozy was promoting relied on potentially dangerous technology that often overruns its 40-year lifespan. Many reactors in use nowadays were built as long ago as the 1950s and 1960s, and those reactors were due to only last until the late 1990s, with lobbyists pushing governments to extend their licenses by decades and persuading those same government officials to ignore shoddy safety records and poor manufacturing. Fukushima being the most recent example of how a disaster at one of these reactors can play out. There have also been minor incidents at locations such as (the frequently troubled) Windscale-Sellafield in the UK (with one leak not being detected for several months due to a \u2018complacent culture\u2019 at the plants), Paks in Hungary and Braidwood, IL and Erwin, TN.\u00a0 Erwin’s plant was shut down for seven months, and a required public hearing on the licensing of the plant wasn’t held due to the absence of public notification.<\/p>\n
As any fool knows, nuclear reactor cores emit tons of stray neutrons that cause molecular changes in the materials around them. Most importantly steel and concrete. The materials harden and become brittle, increasing the possibility of cracks.<\/p>\n
With a change in French politics, though, there may be a planned partial nuclear phaseout of the 24 oldest reactors by 2025 starting with Fessenheim. Also, France has recently announced plans to start building the first of five offshore wind farms, to produce a total of 6 GW of power and increase output from 50 MW of solar power by 500 MW. This only accounts for less than 1 percent of EDF\u2019s output. The company’s 59 nuclear reactors in France currently produce 400 TWh in comparison.<\/p>\n
EDF operates in the UK as EDF Energy and provides gas and electricity to some six million consumers throughout Southern England as one of the largest distributor and generators in the UK. In 2004, EDF Energy spent virtually nothing on renewable energy according to The Ecologist magazine<\/a> (note: paywalled for subscribers). Since then, EDF’s renewable initiatives have been slow to develop, despite numerous greenwashing campaigns to encourage consumers to be environmentally aware to distract from the fact that consumers account for less than 10 percent of the nation’s energy consumption and EDF Energy owning and running two coal-fired power stations, offsetting its carbon emissions with greater reliance on nuclear power.<\/p>\n Britain\u2019s energy policy hews closely to the French model, partly due to the heavy reliance on EDF Energy and other private companies. As the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s website puts it, “the UK has been blessed with a wealth of energy resources”, including some of the best wind, tide and wave resources in Europe. (The Severn Bore is the second most powerful wave bore on Earth after the Bay of Fundy.) Back in 2010, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said that, \u201cone of the biggest British scandals is that despite the UK having superb renewable energy potential and the know-how to exploit it, we are one of the worst-performing countries when it comes to harnessing it.\u201d Renewable sources of energy only comprised less than 10 percent of the UK\u2019s power supply, rising from less than 2 percent in 2007.<\/p>\n With the UK\u2019s energy production in private hands since the early 1990s, there has been little political momentum from the government to push for a more rigorous green energy policy, especially regarding industry and the private markets. In fact, the UK\u2019s energy policy has been to seemingly expend as little energy as possible, especially in the green markets.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not all doom and gloom from the UK, however. London\u2019s new Blackfriars rail station is following Belgium\u2019s pattern, with 4,400 panels on its roof producing 1 Mw, providing half of the station’s power from solar power alone. However, Britain lags behind most of its European neighbours, with a paltry 750 MWp – less than half of Belgium\u2019s. In 2008, though, Britain iplemented a FiT (Feed-in Tariff) similar to Germany\u2019s, allowing homeowners to generate power into the national grid and be paid for the surplus, but it still lags far behind.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcitement.comadmin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/20090720-tuvalu-solar-power-array-468x273.jpg\")
<\/a>