"Power Play" short documentary on German success
In a new video documentary released on Monday, Journeyman Pictures investigates how Germany is switching over to renewables – and in particular, how communities are managing to force the switch against opposition from large power corporations.
The roughly 14-minute video visits the two German villages of Schönau and Feldheim. The former is already well known worldwide. Decades ago it made headlines when residents forced the grid operator to sell the local grid to them. Since then, the village has become a major producer of renewable power.
Feldheim is one of literally scores of villages in Germany that have gone 100 percent renewable (others include most notably Jühnde, Dardesheim, and Freiamt). According to this recent report in German weekly Die Zeit, 450 community energy projects have come about in the last five years alone. The difference in Feldheim is that the village is not focusing on going 100 percent renewable in its net consumption (meaning that it exports excess power and imports from the grid as need be), but that the village is going completely off-grid.
The video is not, however, without its problems. For instance, the German word "Förderung" is repeatedly translated as "subsidy," which properly translates into German as "Subvention," not Förderung, which more properly means support or simply funding. The Germans avoid calling feed-in tariffs "subsidies" for good reason – they are not subsidies. Rather, feed-in tariffs specify a minimum price that utilities must pay producers of green power. Similar government-mandated pricing exists in many countries for a wide range of products and services – from books to medicine.
Furthermore, one homeowner is quoted as saying that his return on his solar roof is 2-3 percent, which is particularly low for Germany, where the ROI is closer to 5-7 percent.
Nonetheless, the video is highly recommended and very well done (Craig Morris)
