Germany's successful feed-in tariff program , which was first introduced in 2000 and revised in 2004 and 2009, has become a model for many countries around the world including Japan, the Czech Republic and Ontario. The latest revision, which is scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2012, is the first since the German Government decided to shut down all nuclear power plants by 2022.
The current revision increases Germany's renewable energy target to 35-40% by 2020. It also increases prices for biomass, geothermal, and offshore wind energy and continues current incentives for solar photovoltaic (reduced in 2010) and onshore and offshore wind. Germany and China lead the world in solar photovoltaic manufacturing. According to Germany Trade & Invest (GT&I) Germany’s solar photovoltaic industry employs over 100,000 workers.
As of May 2011 Germany had an installed solar photovoltaic capacity of more than 18 GW. The German solar photovoltaic industry installed 7.4 GW in 2010.
There is no doubt there are many hidden costs of mining both thermal coal and metallurgical coal which don't always make coal market news. www.coalportal.com
Posted by: coalportal | October 20, 2011 at 04:41 AM