Germany has spent more than $222 billion on renewable energy subsidies as part of its efforts to slash its greenhouse gas emissions, according to industry author Robert Bryce. The total cost of its CO2 goals was projected to be $500 billion by 2025, and that figure only accounts for the investment needed in the electricity sector. Despite the massive costs, in 2017, Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions were at roughly the same level as they were in 2009. By 2018, the German government was forced to admit that it would not meet its targets.

Still, in 2019, the German government announced it would close all of its coal-fired power plants by 2038, Bryce wrote in his book, “A Question of Power: Electricity and The Wealth of Nations.”  We’ll see what happens there.

In early 2019, some 600 environmental groups submitted a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives that said the U.S. must shift to “100% renewable power generation by 2035 or earlier.” The same letter said any definition of renewable must exclude all combustion-based power generation, nuclear, biomass energy, large-scale hydro, and waste-to-energy technologies.

Germany provides a clear example of how renewable mandates push up electricity prices. As Germany ramped up its renewable programs, electricity rates skyrocketed. They are now approaching 40 cents per kWh (the U.S. average is around 13 cents per kWh). Electricity is becoming a privilege in Germany, not a right.

Bryce writes that in the U.S., California continues to be a leader in both renewable mandates and high electricity prices…and now, the threat of blackouts. Following state mandates to increase renewables, California’s electric rates rose at more than five times the rate of electricity prices in the rest of the U.S. between 2011 and 2017. As a result, a coalition of civil rights leaders filed a lawsuit in state court in 2018 claiming that the state’s climate policies discriminate against low income and minority consumers. Electricity is becoming a privilege for the few in California. The lawsuit says California’s climate regulations are a regressive tax that is hitting poor and working class consumers harder, and that California has had the highest poverty rate in the country. 

John Gamboa, a civil rights leader in the California group, states: “Every time they pass new (climate) regulations, the burden falls on the people who can least afford it. That’s the history of the environmental movement.”

A University of California-Davis study in 2017 found that the grid still needs traditional (base load) generators to supply electricity when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. Therefore, the utilities must continue operating (and paying for) the traditional generators. The result, the study says, is that consumers pay for the extra generation. 

In addition, consumers have to pay for billions of dollars of new transmission lines needed to carry wind and solar electricity from rural areas (where the renewables are located) into cities.

Further, Bryce says, renewables are not capable of producing significant quantities of electricity. The amount of renewables added in recent years is not keeping pace with global electricity demand. In 2017, the combined output of every solar-energy project on the planet totaled just two million barrels of oil equivalent per day. That’s well under 1% of global energy demand, Bryce wrote.

Making solar energy and the required battery storage it will need work at the terawatt scale will require billions of tons of material to be mined and transported, manufactured, and recycled (if possible). Those materials include silica, copper, lead, zinc, and lithium, plus enormous quantities of rare-earth elements and cobalt. Mining and smelting all that will have significant impacts on people and the environment. Child and slave labor is being used today in this process, Bryce says. 
Electric and hybrid vehicles, wind turbines, and other “green” technologies also require large quantities of rare earth materials. Bryce wrote that China controls an estimated 80% of the market in rare earths.

While 99% of all lead-acid batteries are being recycled, only about 3% of lithium batteries are being recycled because they are so costly to do so.

Bryce wonders: “If only governments could eliminate subsidies for all forms of energy production.” NextEra is the biggest wind energy producer in the world, thanks to taxpayer subsidies. In 2017, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy named NextEra as one of the most subsidized corporations in America. Between 2008 and 2015, NextEra accumulated profits of $21.5 billion but had a negative tax bill of $313 million. If you do the math, that comes out to a negative tax rate of 1.5 %. NextEra collected an estimated $7.8 billion in subsidies.