This is a map of annual sunlight in the U.S. and in Germany (on lower right), according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory…
Yet, this is how Fox Business Network “reporter” Shibani Joshi explained, on Fox “News” today, why it is that Germany leads the world in solar energy production, while “the hopes for solar in the U.S. have dimmed”:
Sigh. See Media Matters for the full Fox video and actual facts and stuff, including the actual reason why solar energy is so successful in Germany, where, last year it powered about a third of the country’s energies need on a single Friday in May, and a full 50% of its energy needs the next day on Saturday. (On average last year, solar accounted for some 4% of the country’s energy needs, with other renewables there accounting for about 20% total. That, as the country, in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, moves away from nuclear entirely and attempts to replace all of that power with clear renewables. See our “UPDATE & CORRECTION” below for more details.)
And, while taking in all of the misinformation from Fox above, keep in mind that yesterday PPP released the results of its 4th Annual TV News Trust Poll which finds, among other things, 70% of Republicans still actually trust Fox “News”. Even more incredibly, some 67% of Republicans trust Fox more than any other source.
Can’t imagine why Republicans are so obscenely misinformed these days.
[Hat-tip @alutz3 on the Twitters.]UPDATE & CORRECTION 2/9/2013: Fox’ Joshi has now filed a correction, of sorts, buried on the Fox “News” website (as opposed to front and center on one of their highest watched programs, Fox and Friends, where she originally misinformed millions of Fox viewers. See below for that update and a correction of our own…
Joshi now writes somewhere on the Fox “News” website:
The rest of her article goes on to argue why fracking and natural gas are still much better alternatives than solar anyway. So her agenda is the same, but she’s offering different arguments to support it now. That’s what suffices as “reporting” on Fox “News”.
For our own part, we have a correction to make as well. We originally reported above that “solar energy is so successful in Germany” that “it powers, on average, about 30% of the country’s energy needs, despite being at a higher latitude than Seattle.”
In fact, as BRAD BLOG commenter “Sven O” noted below, solar only accounted for an annual average of about 4% of the Germany’s energy needs last year, with, as Reuters reported last year the country getting about 20% of its annual electricity from both solar and other renewable sources.
The Reuters article notes, however, that last May when the country’s latest solar power record was shattered, solar in Germany supplied “a third of its electricity needs on a work day, Friday, and nearly half on Saturday when factories and offices were closed.”:
…
Norbert Allnoch, director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry (IWR) in Muenster, said the 22 gigawatts of solar power per hour fed into the national grid on Saturday met nearly 50 percent of the nation’s midday electricity needs.
…
The record-breaking amount of solar power shows one of the world’s leading industrial nations was able to meet a third of its electricity needs on a work day, Friday, and nearly half on Saturday when factories and offices were closed.
Government-mandated support for renewables has helped Germany became a world leader in renewable energy and the country gets about 20 percent of its overall annual electricity from those sources.
Germany has nearly as much installed solar power generation capacity as the rest of the world combined and gets about four percent of its overall annual electricity needs from the sun alone. It aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.
Germany has nearly as much installed solar power generation capacity as the rest of the world combined and gets about four percent of its overall annual electricity needs from the sun alone.
We regret our original error.
LOL!
I spent the entire month of January 1968 in Germany (US Army); saw the sun twice in the entire month.
It’s fitting that after decades of demonizing Germany’s people for the failing of one of it’s leaders decades ago, that they have humiliated us now.
Solar energy works, and a public works project like the one that gave us freeways could provide energy from anywhere the sun shines to every city in America. In fact the German people can’t believe we gave that opportunity away.
I’m not a journalist. I just go on what I’ve heard and what seems to make sense.
Fox “news” shines no light. I don’t know WHAT they do.
So true, Larry — not sure what to call it, but it sure ain’t “news”.
For more on Germany’s energy transformation, check out this ebook (only 99 cents!):
Clean Break: The Story of Germany’s Energy Transformation and What Americans Can Learn from It
Why is rooftop solar cheaper in Germany than in the U.S.? It’s not the panels. Most of the increased cost and time delays are due to our policies, at all levels.
This is really funny! I live in Prague, and if you swung it around to your hemisphere, I’d be 300 or so miles north of Fort Kent, Maine. But I’m located south of most of Germany, and this is a cloudy, dark part of the world. You should see the produce they grow in Holland (and you should see the pot we all grow here!). Hemp rules!
We are in big trouble where I live, (Salt Lake City, Utah). For a couple of months now, we have been breathing the worst air on earth. Our mountains and temperature inversions have been trapping our automobile and industrial emissions.
Our privatization-at-all-costs governor has been doing his best to blame it on people who drive to work. Of course, he’s half right, but wasn’t there a movie called “Who Killed the Electric Car“?
It was once much worse here in the Salt Lake valley, due to the burning of coal, but, somehow that doesn’t make me feel better.
Maybe cartoons can help us understand.
I trust AlGozerra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMrxC-qEHb8
Maybe he was thinking about selling Current…100 million dollars.
I trust Democratic congressman Hank Johnson and am still very concerned that Guam will tip over: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNZczIgVXjg
I trust Democrat congressman Owens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N81fOuca8Oc
I trust Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N81fOuca8Oc
I dont trust fox news
Davey Crocket:
I’m guessing that’s not your real name, but thanks for the food for thought.
Actually, Gore sold Current for FIVE hundred million dollars because they do a MUCH better job of reporting then ANY American journalistic organization.
But I get some of your points.
LB@8
My point was that Gore personally made the 100 mil…pre tax of course.
My larger point is that people…even smart people…stay stupid things from time to time (making a big leap that Owens is smart of course). So, the comment about Germany’s insolation being greater than USA was a little dumb.
However, moving toward natural gas is not dumb.
The Fox virus may be spreading.
A Morning Joe segment today, concerning torture and drone murders, could easily have been on Fox News.
The neoCon warmongers of Fauxdom would have loved it.
The key to solar and wind is having a good grid, and storage (like liquid salt “batteries”) so that 24/7 generation can be a reality.
Germany has forsight of the sort that the USA needs to emulate.
John Fund cracks the case on rampant voter fraud:
http://www.nationalreview.com/c...back-john-fund
While on the topic of truth…we have Rather in the news today:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/d...rticle/2520939
If you read the article you will find that a liberal typographer confirms that Rather is a liar.
I have a lot of respect for Germans…I have German roots myself. Lets see how their solar/wind fares in 20+ years. I certainly respect them for trying. Deutschland uber alles!
But what surprises me is that FOX leads the news outlets listed among INDEPENDENTS by a hefty margin! What the heck? I would have thought PBS would have been the top of that list… at least supporting some degree of independent thought. I guess there must be a large percentage of “Other” thrown in with the Independents. Hm.
@Katie…a lot of Tea_Party types and Conservatives label themselves “Independent” as they don’t want to be identified with the Republican establishment. They tend to vote Republican, but they prefer to call themselves Independent.
Davey Crocket @ 13:
Your consistent streak of not understanding the difference between opinion and fact continues! Congratulations!
BTW, even if someone had proven the docs were forged (and they have not), if Rather doesn’t know about that “proof”, is he still a “liar”? Of course not.
Or, more to the point, are you just a dude who hides behind a pseudonym scouring the Internet for stuff you (incorrectly) think might support your preconceived and misinformed notions?
Better question: Why don’t you ever get embarrassed by that? (Potential answer: the power of the pseudonym!)
Fox news is a cult. If your told over and over that you are a only one telling the truth, or if you repeat a lie over and over pretty soon you believe it. Fox is also a propoganga channel for the republican party. The republican party is the lobbyist for the oil and gas industries. If anyone cannot see that they are watching to much Fox noise. In Sen Hagel’s confirmation hearing a R-Sen asked him if he would stay away from renewable energy and stick with oil for the military. The republican party has fought the green energy program from the start.
Fox noise and Rush talked against the electric Chev. volt all the time. Proably didn’t see it on Fox but the Volt made car of the year.
As far as Rather and Bush, don’t anyone find it strange that all Bush’s military records were no where to be found. And then the republicans swiftboated Kerry who served two tours in Vietnam.
Hey folks, our government got that thing up their in Alaska they called the (halo)sp? project that needs internationally reigned in. Again, its just me saying hey to the big picture,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...reen&NR=1
.
Fox News has long led the media in exploring where the sun don’t shine.
Davey Crocket, (king of the wild frontier):
Dan Rather doesn’t just have a name; he made a name for himself by reporting the truth. He lost his job for doing that. You’re not outraged by that fact and should be ashamed for existing.
The talking heads guarding the inhabitants of Bullsh*t Mountain from rejoining the world of the sane only serve their own warped ideology. Fox News is a propaganda machine which dumbs down America by the day through disinformation and their slanted agendas. See their anchors spewing forth feces from their mouths in my visual homage to the network on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot....f-bullsht.html
“(…)solar energy is so successful in Germany, where it powers, on average, about 30% of the country’s energy needs (…)”
This is incorrect. Solar energy yields about 4-5% of primary energy in Germany, 30% is rather the approx. figure for renewable energies overall (including water and wind power).
http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/e...mmix-karte.pdf
(^ A federal government website.)
also of interest:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/bcaa4yr
I guess this article equates all of Fox News with what a single guest stated (incorrectly, of course) on that network. Do you hold MSNBC to the same standard ? I suspect the truth about global warming is somewhere in the muddle of facts each side uses to buttress their case. What I do know is 30 years into the effort on solar, after huge subsidies, alternative energy remains too expensive for the average person to afford. So I say stop all subsidies regarding energy, including fossill fuels, and let the market determine what is truely more affordable and efficient.
@Jay
Read up on externalities, technological lock-in, oligopolies and depreciation – good reasons for why a developed country should not let the market decide.
The market is not able to find the optimum under such conditions, not even come close to it.
Jay @ 23 asked:
Actually, yes we do. While we have dozens of examples of Fox being simply wrong on their supposed facts (while thousands exist elsewhere), we also hold MSNBC accountable when they get their facts wrong, even as that is much much more rare. Here’s just one recent example: “VIDEO: Maddow’s ‘GOP War on Voting’ Update – And an Important Error in Her Report on Ohio”
The difference, of course, is that while MSNBC, like any other news outlet, gets things wrong: a) They tend to issue corrections when they get it wrong, while Fox almost never does and b) Unlike Fox, MSNBC doesn’t simply make shit up!
Well, your suspicions would be wrong. It is not a matter of “each side”. It is a matter of the vast consensus of thousands of scientists in hundreds of countries in dozens of disciplines over several decades, versus the fossil fuel industry and a few very loud cranks who support their unscientific bullshit.
But the fact that you suspect “the truth” is someone in the “muddle” proves that their unscientific, but well-paid for bullshit, works.
Great plan! After hundreds of years of subsidies to the fossil-fuel industries to make them into a mature, viable market, let’s cut off subsidies to the emerging markets now, along with them. Gosh I wonder if the well-established, mature, long-time government-supported industries will work, or the new ones, which must compete, for example, with almost completely government-funded solar industries in China and elsewhere.
You may want to go back to your “muddle”. Confusion is obviously easier than facts and truth and stuff.
Sven O @ 22 said:
You are right! I’ve issued a correction to the story above, and a note along with it that offers more details.
Thanks, Sven!
“Read up on externalities, technological lock-in, oligopolies and depreciation – good reasons for why a developed country should not let the market decide.”
All opinions have some value, some more then others. Free markets are the best determinant for what works and does not. If solar was cheaper and better it would not need subsidies, which merely distort markets based on political whims.
As to”MSNBC” corrects their mistakes comment, you must be delusional or watching another network. They are basically an arm of the Democratic party, as are most major networks these daze. It is good for democracy to have alternative views available, whether you agree with them or not. It seems progressives spend a lot more time trying to shut down conservative biased news outlets then visa versa. What are they so afraid of?
Jay said @ 27:
Huh. Weird. Then I guess neither coal nor oil nor natural gas nor nuclear “works”, since they all enjoy huge subsidies and have for decades. If they were “cheaper and better” they “would not need subsidies”, as you tell us, and yet, they get them, by law, every year, automatically, without having to beg each year as the renewables industry does. Crazy, eh?
And do you really think Nuclear could survive without government subsidies? Seriously? What planet do you live on?
One has nothing to do with the other. Whether or not you see them as “an arm of the Democratic party”, has nothing to do with whether they correct errors or not.
Um, I’m sorry. Which “progressives” are “trying to shut down conservative biased news outlets”? And what “conservative biased news outlets” are you talking about? And do you have any evidence that those “progressives” are trying to “shut [them] down”? Or are you just pulling all of that out of your ass?
“All opinions have some value, some more then others. Free markets are the best determinant for what works and does not.”
Well, my opinion is not opinion, but a competent statement by someone who has a university degree in economics after five years of studying, with specialisation and classes in exactly the fields to be applied here.
Free markets (or as economists say: “markets”) are not the best determinant for anything but to know what a market outcome is. Markets are subject to imperfections, and the ones which I mentioned are dominant in this case.
No competent economist is going to claim that a laissez faire policy yields the best energy mix in this case and at the same time expects to be able to stand ground in a scientific debate about it. Even textbook economic theory leaves no doubt that the market solution without adjustments is going to be suboptimal.
“daze”
What’s this?
About subsidies:
All nuclear power plants would shut down immediately if their operators were required to have appropriate insurance coverage.
All coal power plants would shut down immediately if people sick from dust emissions could sue the coal power plant operators appropriately for their failure to install proper emissions filters.
Thanks, Sven O,
So refreshing to have another voice of reason and evidence exposing bullshit spewed for what it is. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And thanks for the correction on the original post, too.
Ref Brandt Hardin # 21 link to the fair and balance. It’s to bad that everyone won’t take the time to view the video. It has been often said that the fourth estate controls our government. Fox news is like a lot of religions as the more radical the more control. I watched Bill O’Riley for a couple years until I started to think for myself.
Free markets will work and police themselves. That really worked from 2001 through 2009 didn’t it? They forget about the greed for the almighty dollar. I remember when Bush said he was going to let industries fill out their own forms for EPA. I’m sure they were all honest.
We have a FOX in the hen house (USA) Of course we all trust the fox.
@Davey Crocket
All that Mr Fund did was follow the typical pattern of hyping every suggestion of fraud hoping to create the illusion of smoke where there is no fire.
http://thinkprogress.org/justic...s-voter-fraud/
@Davey Crocket
If the Republican party pushed NATIONWIDE election integrity laws I might have some sympathy for their cause. The Republican party pushes for local changes designed to hamper voting in areas where Democrats are most prevalent.
@Davey Crocket
One of the strange side effects of the Republican lies concerning voter fraud is that Republican voters ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT IT IS POSSIBLE. It must have been a rude awakening when this lady got BUSTED by the current system!
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news...ion-trying-vo/
I’m still wondering whether The BRAD BLOG’s use of quotes around the word news (Fox “News”) or the phrase Faux News is more accurate.
Perhaps we should be referring to the Faux “News” Network.
A few important differences between Germany and here:
The US forces rewrote their consitution after the surrender. German laws do not allow labor abuse – ALL companies must have 50% laborers on the board.
The Nurnberg Trials laws which hung the Nazi “criminals against humanity” were written and enforced by the US and it’s Allies. Under it’s provisions, the former Administration (W. Bush) would all be on trial for crimes against humanity.
They don’t have FOX news to infiltrate their minds with propoganda which favors the few rich lawbreakers.
They have been around for millenia, and as most European countries, have learned their lessons through war and revolutions: the people must be heard.
All their powerlines are buried, and they have been recycling since the 70’s. Their meticulous state is due to a personality trait. Mostly, land is expensive and so what little you have, you take care of.
Education, if you qualify (have the aptitude) can be free. (Freie Università¤t Berlin, for ex.) Therefore there’s virtually little debt in that regard.
The German government and law enforcement WILL enforce banking malfeasanceand tax evasion – no one is above the law. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2...8BB0NA20121212
I was born and raised in Germany in the mid-60’s and emigrated here to the states in 78 because of my father’s ties to the US military. That country has been humbled and disgraced by their following of Hitler and has learned their lesson.
What will it take for the US states congress and citizens to learn our lessons? (vietnam didnt teach us enough to avoid iraq, the Great Depression didnt teach us enough to avoid the Great Recession) I’m not optimistic about the US as long as education is expensive and available to the priviledged few, and as long as the media lies. That combination is disaster. What is next for the US populace in terms of our masters to bring down on us?